Yesterday's Son
by Starway Man
Summary: What if Xander Harris had been born Alexander Summers? [COMPLETE]
1. A Rude Awakening

**Date written: **Sun 9 Apr 2006

**Author:** Starway Man

**E-mail:** theop at kew dot hotkey dot net dot au

**Disclaimer:** None of the Buffy and Angel references belong to me, but rather Joss and his gang of idi...er, geniuses. Some parts of this are directly from the TV episodes, and so belong to the writers in question. Oh, yeah, and I won't be making any illegal profit from this story; as always, I'm just hoping for a little feedback here.

**Category: **Action, Adventure, Angst, Alternate Universe

**Main characters:** Xander, Ensemble

**Rating:** Overall R, with mostly PG-13 parts.

**Acknowledgments:** Thanks to Buffyworld for the transcripts of the relevant episodes, and my beta readers Nodakskip, Greywizard and Francis Eugene for all their help and suggestions.

**Warnings:** This fanfic contains descriptions of killing and violence, as well as some very bad language.

**Continuity: **The story begins during the major flashback of "Fool For Love", and then eventually moves onto the events of "Welcome To The Hellmouth/The Harvest".

**Author notes: **One of the few things I liked about BtVS season 7 was the development of Xander's character into 'the one who sees everything', as Caleb put it. That led me to wonder what the TV series would have been like, if this had been developed earlier in the show...and if an idea used in the Fray comics had been included as well. Which in turn led my rather convoluted thought processes to this tale, which I hope you'll enjoy!

**Summary: **What if Xander Harris had been born Alexander Summers?

**Title: **Yesterday's Son

* * *

"Excuse me. Who gave you permission to exist?"

(Cordelia Chase, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)

"I altered his reality."

(Xander Harris, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER)

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?"

(John Milton, PARADISE LOST)

* * *

**Part I: A Rude Awakening**

**The Underwood residence, London, England. March, 1880**

The elegant dinner party was in full swing.

At this point in human history, vampires had become merely the stuff of myth and legend. The current rash of disappearances happening throughout London Town was being put down to animals or thieves, at least by these partygoers. And the simpering fools had no idea that the things which went 'chomp' in the night were currently destined to add to their swelling numbers this evening.

In other words, a rather bookish and awkward young Victorian gentleman named William, who was present at this notable gathering. William, a joke to his peers and a bloody awful poet, was also someone who thought he was in love with the daughter of the household, Cecily Underwood.

At this moment, William had his heart out on his sleeve, declaring his love to the brunette woman in question now that he had finally gotten her alone. William Pratt said, "I know I'm a bad poet, but I'm a good man. And all I ask is that...that you try to see me-"

"I do see you," Cecily interrupted. "That's the problem. You're-" But suddenly she stopped and choked, seemingly unable to breathe.

Maybe it was from an allergy to dust, or a bit of an hors d'oeuvre that had gone down the wrong way, or something else entirely. But whatever the cause, Cecily's suitor was instantly concerned about her state of health even as the brunette female recovered her ability to draw breath.

"Cecily? What's wrong?" William asked in worried consternation, trying to see her face.

The man then got the shock of his life, for instead of Cecily's "effulgent beauty"...there was only the inhuman and deformed features of a female vengeance demon.

"DAMNATION!" cursed the creature known as Halfrek, momentarily ignoring the guy with the spectacles. "What was that? I don't understand..." She then saw William's astonishment and cursed again.

"Cecily? Is that you? What, what manner of sorcery is this?" William asked in a somewhat fearful tone, inadvertently backing away from her.

Halfrek figured the jig was up, so she just spat out, "Oh, hush, you fool! Must you act as if you've never seen a demon before in your entire life? Well, just so you know, you're nothing to me William. You're beneath me."

Unfortunately, the rehearsed speech was somewhat ruined by the sight of Halfrek's demon face, which she had forgotten to turn back into Cecily Underwood's features.

And thus William, terrified and praying fervently to a God he wasn't sure had existed before now, ran off – dropping the poetry onto the floor of the manor, on his way to the nearest church to confess his sins and beg the Almighty for His divine help.

Halfrek just sighed and resumed the 'Cecily' persona. She had obviously failed to drive William to the point of suicide as part of the wager with her colleague Anyanka, and so it was time now to start ending this charade of a mortal life she had set up for herself.

* * *

**Elsewhere in London. Ten minutes later**

Three vampires were walking down the street, enjoying the night air. Their names were Angelus, Darla and Drusilla. And they were a nightmare to any mortal that knew of them.

Angelus said dotingly to his childe, "Well, if you're lonely, Dru, why don't you make yourself a playmate?"

The undead seer nodded, "I could. I could pick the wisest and bravest knight in all the land – and make him mine forever with a kiss..." Then suddenly she stopped, and bent over as the other two vamps also came to a halt.

Dru started wheezing, "No, no, no. My precious, sweet Willy! Gone, vanished, lost! He's not 'ere, he is..."

"What's she babbling about now?" Darla wanted to know after briefly looking all around her.

"Who knows?" Angelus said roughly, suddenly bored and impatient with the younger vampire's antics. "Come on, Dru! We've got places to be, things to do, people to kill..."

So saying, the male vamp grabbed both his women and quickly dragged them away; as Drusilla briefly started to weep for what could have been inside her addled brain.

* * *

**In the woods outside Borsa, Romania. July, 1898**

Darla was definitely not in a good mood.

It had all started with a birthday present she had decided to get for her favorite childe; a delectable young virgin girl, the favorite of her clan. Dumb as a post, really, for the child to have fallen into Darla's trap that way. And her darling boy Angelus had feasted well on her carcass that night.

In Darla's opinion, it had all been just a bit of harmless fun.

The Kalderash tribe of gypsies however had had a different opinion about the matter.

"You took him from me. You stole him away. You gave him a soul," the female vampire hissed at the gypsy elder standing before her, ignoring the fact that the ensouled version of Angelus was running away up a nearby hill.

"He must suffer, as all of his victims have suffered," the elder snapped back, full of righteous fury at his enemies.

Darla was obviously unimpressed. "That is no justice. Whatever pain he caused to your daughter was momentary – over in an instant..." She reconsidered, "...or an hour. But what you've done to him will force Angelus to suffer for the rest of eternity! Remove that filthy soul so my boy might return to me!"

Drusilla inserted herself into the conversation. "Angelus is gone away. Where is he?"

Darla grabbed hold of the gypsy's neck. "Drusilla! The camp – go on – kill things!"

Her grandchilde seemed uncertain. "He shall be very cross, if he finds we had a lovely mass slaughter without him-"

The 300-year-old woman closed her eyes for a moment, as if in despair or possible frustration with her so-called 'granddaughter'. "He'll join us soon. Now do as you're told."

Dru licked one of her fingers and nodded, "Okay." Then she walked off.

Darla tried to focus again as she stared at her soon-to-be victim. She gestured, "Inside that wagon is your family. Your wife and daughters will die tonight without my protection." She stroked the man's cheek, "But if you'll just do as I say, your family can live..."

The gypsy hesitated. And then, unlike in a world where 18 years ago the vampire called Spike had joined their pack, there was an interruption by the soulless creature named Penn.

"How much longer must I wait in here?" Angelus's childe called to Darla, as he stuck his head out of the wagon.

"Until I say otherwise!" the head of the family snarled back. Penn quickly vanished. "Well?" she demanded of the gypsy.

"I cannot help you, even if I wanted to. The curse cannot be broken," the elder said defiantly.

"You lie badly, you lummox. A curse is always imperfect by its very nature!" the female vampire hissed. "Did you think I know nothing about magic? There's always a flaw, always a way for any curse to be broken...if you just look hard enough. Now tell me, or your family dies!"

At that moment Drusilla rejoined the pair, her head swaying slightly from side to side. "Pretty music, pretty music. My kitten, he still sleeps in the halls of time...but he shall listen to the music, and become ever so unhappy..."

"Shut up, Dru!" Darla screamed, her patience at an end.

"A moment of happiness..." Dru muttered anyway, as her eyes drifted upwards to stare at the moon.

The gypsy elder's eyes widened only for a moment, but it was enough. Full realization came to the undead matriarch, "That's it, isn't it? That's your big secret. A happiness clause in the curse! All that Angelus need do is be happy, just for a moment, and not let that soul you restored plague his thoughts?"

The gypsy said nothing, only snarling in anger as he struggled to get free. A jubilant Darla instantly snapped his neck and then called out, "Penn! James! Elisabeth! You too, Drusilla. SHOW THEM ALL NO MERCY!"

* * *

**The Woman's Hospital of Texas, Houston. February, 1978**

Angel clasped the young woman's shoulder, as she held the newborn infant in her arms.

It had been a long century for this particular vampire so far, in more ways than one. And even though Angel didn't know it, quite a number of plans and prophecies had now crumbled into dust, thanks to the ripple effects from Halfrek's little seizure.

The Pergamum Codex, the prophecies of Aurelius, the Nyazian sacred texts, the scrolls of Aberjian...you name it, they had all been affected. Plus all the people who should have died at Spike's hands had lived on and affected the world in MANY different ways. It had caused quite a headache for those trying to keep some sort of balance in the mortal world, to be sure.

In any case, after Darla and her troupe had found Angel again in 1898, the tormented vampire had been astonished to learn just how easily the curse could be broken. And he had tried to do that, he really had...

But unfortunately, nothing seemed to work no matter what Angel attempted. Sex, food, even mundane and mystical drugs; nothing gave the vampire the moment of perfect happiness he'd needed to become a soulless monster again.

After two years, the ensouled creature had finally given up. He escaped his former family during 1900, carrying off a baby he'd rescued from them during the Boxer Rebellion in China.

Since then, Angel had brooded away the decades, watching as the mortal world turned more and more away from magic and embraced science and technology. After arriving in the U.S. during 1902 via a ship, Angel had ended up saving a puppy from a speeding car in 1922, meeting a bunch of sailors on a submarine during 1943, and even witnessed the Bob Hope Desert Classic being televised live during 1963.

And finally, he'd met Adrienne Pratt, the last descendant of William the bloody awful poet after the rest of his lineage had all passed on one way or another.

The young woman had just gotten herself pregnant when Angel had saved her last year during a hold-up in a diner. The vampire had been standing by the jukebox, listening to Manilow, when a criminal had come in, shot the counter employee and tried to rob the place. Angel had barely managed to shield Ms. Pratt from a bullet; later, Adrienne had been full of questions...

Which Angel had reluctantly answered.

Oddly though, the human female hadn't been repulsed by the fact that her saviour was a bloodsucking demon. Well, this was the late 1970's, after all. And people's attitudes had changed a lot ever since Woodstock and the country's cultural revolution.

Not to mention Adrienne had quickly fallen in love with Angel afterwards, his human features very appealing to her.

"Say hello to your Daddy, Connor," the woman said with a smile, as she gave the baby to his adoptive father. "And we're all gonna be one big happy family now, aren't we?"

Angel stared at the infant in sheer wonder, as he suddenly contemplated the future. The prospect of actually being called "Dad" by a son, of more-or-less living as a man with Adrienne as they raised their child together...watching Connor grow up, and one day get married, and then have children of his own – grandchildren for him to lovingly spoil...

And that was when Fate kicked the side of the good guys directly in the balls.

As Enyos of the Kalderash tribe had known in a different reality, Angel was meant to suffer, not to live as a human. One moment of true happiness and his soul would be taken from him; Angel knew that, but still...

After the past eight decades, he'd grown careless. Far too much so.

And a moment of perfect happiness DOES have this funny way of sneaking up on you completely by surprise. In this case, from finally believing that salvation and redemption had been found in the arms of a decent young woman and her male offspring.

Angel groaned, as Adrienne took her son from him. "Sweetheart, what is it?"

But the undead guy couldn't answer her properly, as he started convulsing with pain and quickly figured out what was happening. "No...no, not now-!"

As the vamp then quickly headed for the door, Angel croaked out, "Go! Hide yourself and the baby! Adrienne – run for your life if you ever see me again!"

Ms. Pratt wasn't a fool and quickly understood what had happened – there was only one possible reason why her beloved would be sprinting off as fast as he could this way. She got up, wrapped the baby snug and warm, and left...just moments before Angelus entered the room, looking for his first real meal in nearly 80 years.

"Damn it!" the newly-soulless vampire said to himself in disgust, as he tried to catch Adrienne's scent. But the smell of disinfectant throughout the hospital was powerful enough to mask his quarry. "Oh well, doesn't matter. I'll probably find her or that damned brat of hers again, one day..."

Oddly enough, as he left the hospital Angelus never noticed a short man in a hat wearing fashionable clothes for this day and age, staring at the vampire depart.

"Well, crap," the balance demon known as Whistler said to no one in particular, before he looked upwards. "Okay, now what do I do?"

* * *

**17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale. June, 1980**

Invisible to the mortal world, the last two years had nonetheless been a time of chaos and madness in the higher and lower realms.

All the major players both upstairs and downstairs had been thoroughly shaken up by the unscheduled reappearance of Angelus. So a summit conference of sorts had had to be held, in order for both sides to try to generate some sort of order out of the madhouse.

Neither side gave away any details of future plans to the enemy, they just wanted to avoid a situation where both of them would lose the prize completely. Eventually there was only one thing that Good and Evil could completely agree on: that someone would have to take Angel's place in the overall scheme of things.

And that was why Whistler was here now on the Hellmouth, at least in part. He looked through the window into the Harris residence and listened with his preternaturally sharp demon hearing.

Anthony Harris was at the kitchen table, chuckling as he poured himself a beer. "Till death do us part. Yeah, right, that's a good one!" He took a long gulp of the alcohol, as his wife Jessica suddenly entered the room. "Where have you been?"

"At the clinic," Mrs. Harris said in a subdued voice. "Today was the day, remember?"

"Oh, the abortion, right..." Tony nodded, before he suddenly looked confused. "But hey, didn't I already spend that money on Scotch and bourbon yesterday?"

Jessica shook her head. "It was right there in the bureau drawer this morning. You must be mistaken."

"Yeah, I guess. Still, I could have sworn..." Tony then shook his head, dismissing it all as irrelevant. "So, what's for dinner? Myself, I'm in the mood for some cocktail wieners tonight..."

Whistler looked away, unable to stomach hearing anymore. As even though he was a demon, these two characters still grossed him out completely.

"Sorry about this, kid," he mournfully told the ghost of Xander Harris. "But I'm afraid ya had to take one for the team for us to fix this mess. Still, it's not all bad. Hopefully you'll like your new home a lot better than the one you'd have had with this trash..."

* * *

**St. Matthew's Hospital, Los Angeles. Mid-June, 1980**

"I'm what?" the 22-year-old Joyce Summers asked in incredulity.

"You're carrying twins. Congratulations," the doctor said cheerfully, as his assistants started to move away the new ultrasound equipment that the hospital had recently acquired.

Hank Summers looked at his wife in surprise. "Twins?"

"It doesn't run in my family," Joyce said in confusion.

"Mine neither."

"Well, I-I guess it just means – that we'll simply have double the love and happiness we were expecting," Joyce finally smiled at her husband, who smiled back.

"Guess we will. So, doctor, what do you think – is it gonna be two boys, two girls, or a combination of both?" Hank asked the physician.

"I'm afraid it's still far too early to tell, after all – your wife's only in her first trimester," the OB-GYN replied. "But we'll know soon enough, I'm sure. Do you have any preferences?"

"Well, I'd like one of both," Joyce said at once.

"Same here," added Mr. Summers.

Whistler was listening outside in the corridor and knew that in about seven months – wish granted. And hopefully the world would now have a future.

TBC...


	2. Welcome To The Hellmouth Redux

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks to all the people who have reviewed and emailed so far; and please, keepit coming! I'm a feedback junkie.

* * *

**Part II: Welcome To The Hellmouth Redux**

**Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale. January, 1997**

Angelus watched that Wednesday night, as Darla toyed with her evening meal in the school corridor before quickly finishing him off. He slowly clapped his hands, "Well, I gotta say, that was quite a performance! Not quite as thrilling as the one you gave back in Vienna, but still pretty good!"

Darla wiped her lips clean of the blood as she sauntered over and gave her favorite offspring a deep kiss. "Was it really good for you too?" she then asked in a throaty voice.

The last 19 years had been glorious ones for the female vamp lord. Ever since her childe had come back into the fold and killed the New York Slayer and her son for her to prove that Soul Boy was no more, Darla had pretty much been in a constant state of bliss. And now they were here on the Hellmouth to meet with her sire...amongst other things.

Angelus growled as he suddenly vamped out and bit into her neck, only for Darla to do the exact same thing. They then stood together, going at it like animals...

"Grandmother, Daddy! It's the kitten! He's here, he's here, he's here at last!" an excited, female and British voice distracted them both. "They hid him from me, they did, all this time – but he's here and now, now and here and now!"

Angelus and Darla broke off their blood play and looked at the prancing Drusilla in annoyance. "What's she talking about?" the former whore asked her lover.

The Irish-born vamp shrugged. "How should I know? I mean, not that I was around for all that time, but she's been talking about that subject for the last hundred years or so hasn't she? Well, maybe if Dru just finds the damn thing, we can finally get some peace and quiet around here!"

With Penn, James and Elisabeth having long since departed to pursue their own paths, Darla couldn't help but agree.

* * *

**1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale. The next morning**

The object of Drusilla's affections was fast asleep in his bedroom.

His life was in some respects very different from what the life of Xander Harris would have been at this point in time, and in other ways almost exactly identical. It was, in fact, the ultimate experiment in nature versus nurture. For Whistler had safely transported his soul into a new home all those years ago, and added in just enough genetic material for the ride so that the boy could still be himself – when the time came for his destiny to be fulfilled.

Be that as it may, after Joyce had woken up her daughter, Buffy, she went into her son's bedroom and looked carefully upon him.

Alexander Henry Summers was looking far too pale in his worried mother's opinion, as he tossed and turned. Hopefully, relocating to this peaceful little town would do him some good – let Alexander get out into the sunshine more, maybe also let him meet a nice girl who would-

Suddenly, the young man jerked upright in bed, a freaked expression on his face. "NOOO!" he screamed.

"Alexander, calm down! It's me, your mother," Joyce said soothingly, as she instinctively went over and stroked his hair. "It's all right, sweetie, it was just a bad dream..."

"Uh...right...but, but Mom, how many times do I gotta say it? Call me Xander," the boy said grouchily as he got up out of the bed.

Joyce rolled her eyes, by this point knowing better than to ask for details about her offspring's nightmares. "I'll never understand why you insist on being called a name that your sister gave you, when you were both just toddlers!"

"Please, Mom. Haven't you read the books? I'm 16 years old: it's the age of rebellion. I'm supposed to be acting out – and who am I to argue with conventional wisdom?" Xander smirked as he headed for the bathroom.

"Don't try to be smart with me, young man!" Joyce called out, a look of annoyance but also deep love on her face. "Breakfast is in five minutes, so hurry up. You and Buffy don't want to be late for your first day!"

"No, wouldn't want that!" her firstborn's reply echoed from outside the room.

* * *

**Outside Sunnydale High School, Sunnydale. Later that morning**

Joyce's Jeep pulled up at the high school built on top of the Hellmouth and she said to her children, "Have a good time. I know you're both gonna make friends right away. Just think positive!"

Xander and Buffy got out of the vehicle, just in time for their mother to add, "And Alexander, dear? Try not to get kicked out of another high school."

"No promises, Mom..."

Joyce looked upset as Buffy elbowed her big brother sharply. "Don't worry, Mom, we got it covered. Oh, almost forgot! I heard you talking to Dad on the phone this morning. Did he say when he's gonna join us?"

Joyce sighed, "Not till the weekend, I'm afraid. Some problems came up with his business and it's gonna take your father a while to get it all sorted out. But don't worry, he'll be here soon." She waved goodbye as the Jeep quickly roared off.

"What?" Buffy asked her sibling, as she noticed Xander get a strange expression on his face.

"Nothing," the boy replied, shaking his head. "Just remembering what it was like when Merrick and I finally convinced him and Mom that vamps were real, in order to get you out of that nuthouse..."

The blonde Slayer inadvertently shivered at those bad memories. That had been a horrible time in all their lives, for sure. Ms. Summers knew that her family had been on the verge of tearing itself apart back then, thanks to her...night-time activities. But the truth had finally come out, right about the time she had been considering making a break for it out of the asylum.

And Hank and Joyce hadn't dealt well with their world-view being turned completely upside down that way, that was certain. Neither did they like the fact that their teenage children had gotten involved in a war that would never end, and would eventually probably cost them their lives.

But since it had been patiently explained to the married couple that there was nothing they could do to change all that, Mr. and Mrs. Summers had eventually learned to deal as best they could, and shield their kids as much as possible from harm.

As Xander and Buffy walked up the steps and headed for the school building's interior, the girl known as Cordelia Chase was talking non-stop to her faithful followers. And this was by no means an infrequent occurrence.

"Senior boys are the only way to go. Guys from our grade: forget about it, they're children. Y'know? Sophomores – uch, give me strength! But senior boys, hmm, they have mystery. They have...what's the word I'm searching for? Oh yeah, cars! It's like when I go shopping. I have to have the most-"

Suddenly Queen C stopped, as she caught sight of the Summers twins. "Hello, salty goodness," she then commented, upon seeing the young man in question. The physical attraction between her and Xander inevitable, at least on some level.

Her so-called best friend, Harmony Kendall, was also hungrily staring at Xander's well-built frame. "Oooh! I saw him first!"

"Really?" Cordelia turned the full force of her glare upon the blonde.

"Cordelia, I..." Finally the airhead realized the situation though, and instantly bowed before the alpha female of the pack. "Oh, I just meant – no, I-I was looking at Larry just now!"

Satisfied, the filthy rich young brunette turned to another Cordette and commanded, "Find out everything about the new guy. Name, history, if that's his girlfriend with him, the works. Understood?"

"Totally!" Gwen nodded, as the American high school version of the Soviet KGB moved off towards the inside of the school.

Not far away, the boy named Jesse McNally was gazing lustfully at Cordelia's departing ass. "I gotta tell ya, Will, I'm stumped! What do I hafta do to get Cordy to notice me, as a man?"

Willow Rosenberg, teenage genius and computer hacker extraordinaire, simply looked at her best friend and unrequited crush in despair. ( _What do I have to do in order to get YOU to notice ME as a real woman, with womanly parts?_ ) she thought to herself before saying to her beloved, "I dunno, Jesse. I guess, just – just be yourself?"

"I've been trying to do that for over a year, Will. Newsflash: it's not working! Uh, maybe we could meet up later somewhere and I could practice my pickup lines for Cordelia on you again?" Jesse asked hopefully.

The redhead sighed. "Maybe. But hey, what's in it for me?"

"A big shiny quarter?" Jesse flashed his toothy smile at Willow, who instantly caved – much to the loss of her inner pride.

* * *

**Principal Flutie's Office, Sunnydale High. A short while later**

Xander was seated in the room, Buffy having suffered through her own interview earlier and now waiting for him outside. Bob Flutie, the school principal, sat down and started to open the boy's file, "So, Alexander Summers. Sophomore, late of Hemery High-"

"Please call me Xander, sir," the young man interrupted. "That's the name I like to go by."

"Right," Flutie nodded, as he started to tear the boy's prior school record apart. "Well, Xander, welcome to Sunnydale High! Like I just said to your sister a few minutes ago, a clean slate – that's what you get here. What's past is past. We're not interested in what it says on a piece of paper, even if it says..."

He started to read details of Xander's...colourful past. "Whoa!"

Xander winced. He'd been afraid of that sort of response. "Mr. Flutie, I know my permanent record's a little...spotty-"

"You burned down the Hemery High School gym?" the school administrator asked in shocked disbelief.

"Uh, the fire marshal never actually said...see, what happened is that these gang members, they were out to hurt my sister...a-a-and things sorta got outta hand when I went in to defend her during the school dance," Xander said somewhat lamely.

"Oh, I-I see. Well, Alexander, don't worry..." Flutie hurriedly started to tape the paper back together. "At any other school, they might say 'watch your step', or 'we'll be watching you'. But, that's just not the way we do things here! We're going to get along famously, I'm sure." He finished the repair job, and slapped the paper back into the file. "Now, why don't you head off to class? My secretary will provide you with your schedule. And again, welcome to Sunnydale High!"

Unfortunately though, Xander couldn't help noticing the principal's shaky and uncertain tone of voice, not to mention Flutie's thin and somewhat nervous smile. As he thanked the principal and departed the office, the boy wondered just what else his first day would bring.

* * *

**Sunnydale High classroom. A short while later**

As soon as Xander and Buffy entered their first class of the day, the young man stopped in shock at the sight of Cordelia Chase.

( _It's her. The girl from my dream..._ )

Xander had a vivid recall of the nightmare in question, from when Joyce had woken him up earlier that morning. In his dream, the boy had gotten up and walked to his new closet, and yet when he had opened the door it had led into the smoky dim interior of some sort of nightclub. One he had never seen before.

That was because Xander had never once in his life been to the Bronze in this version of history, of course. But as he'd made his way through the crowded club, the Summers family member had noticed a woman staring at him.

( _Goth type,_ ) Xander had thought at the time. Someone very pale and dressed in 19th century period clothing. ( _Vampire?_ )

The woman had come up to him and said in a British accent, "Hullo, kitten. Oooh, I've finally found you..." Then Drusilla had gestured to the dance floor, where a dark-haired guy in his mid-twenties was dancing with a buxom brunette around Xander's age. "What do you think of Daddy's li'l pet?"

The dreamer had had no time to reply before Angelus vamped out and began to drain Cordelia dry, her blood spraying out of her neck and down his throat as fast as it could go. Xander had then had woken up with a scream...

Angel's face permanently burned into his memories. For the second time this week.

The history teacher noticed the two new arrivals, and welcomed them in. The Summers teens quickly introduced themselves, and then sat down in the midst of the crowd. And after the class was over, when the bell rang, the majority of the students almost stampeded out of there.

"Man! I almost forgot how boring school can get after the holidays," Jesse complained to Willow as they walked along the corridor. "Anyway, Will, I saw you sharing a book with the new dude. What's up with that?"

"Well, he-he didn't have one, and I just thought I'd be polite," the Rosenberg girl stammered.

Jesse tsked, "Willow, Willow, Willow. Have I taught you nothing about the birds and the bees during lo these many years? That's the oldest trick in the book! Y'know, when a guy wants a girl-"

"Oh, please, spare me. Like anyone within the sighted community would ever really be interested in making out with her? Or for that matter, you?" a sharp female voice rang out.

Both Jesse and Willow stopped, turned around and stared at Cordelia in dismay. "Uh, Cordy! Hi!" Ms. Rosenberg managed to get out.

Ms. Chase barely even deigned to give her a glance. "Nice dress, Willow. Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears!"

"Uh, oh, well, my mom picked it out..." the girl again started to stammer.

"Then that explains why you're such a guy magnet, don't you think?" Cordy then glanced in scorn at Jesse. "Don't you have an elsewhere to be?"

Jesse smiled hopefully. "Depends. Will you go out with me tonight, if I say yes?"

Both girls rolled their eyes. "Beat it, you loser geek!" the socialite snapped, her patience gone. "I'm here to talk to Willow!"

With a shrug, the aforementioned geek left and Willow said fearfully, "Uh, so, you need help with your homework again? Even though it's only the first day back?"

Cordelia flipped her hair to one side. "Actually, no. That new boy you were SO friendly with during class just now. What's his name again?"

"Uh, Alexander Summers. But he said he prefers Xander," the female teen said simply, not getting her companion's feigned coyness. "Why?"

( _Xander? Well, I guess that's not too horrible a name, I can work with that._ ) "Did he happen to mention anything important? Like, if he's gonna join the football team, or if he's involved with anyone?"

"Huh?" Willow said in astonishment. "Oh, gosh, no! Uh, I mean, all Xander told me was he and his family had just moved into town 'n all..."

Cordelia suddenly unleashed a megawatt smile, "Well, good! That makes everything much simpler." Then her expression became disdainful once more as she regarded her companion, "One last thing. If you should happen to bump into him again, you might want to try casually mentioning that I'll be at the Bronze tonight, okay?"

"You, you like Xander Summers already, and you guys haven't even been introduced yet?" the red-haired girl looked astounded.

Cordelia's eyes narrowed dangerously, as the leader of the elite took this as a threat to her position in the school hierarchy. Willow instantly understood though, having known Cordy since kindergarten, "Not that it's any of my business of course, either way. I-I mean, I won't be telling anyone, even if it's true. Which it isn't. Is it?"

"Listen to me, you complete and utter fashion reject! Who I'm interested in, or even not interested in, is DEFINITELY none of your business! Just keep your big mouth shut, okay? Or I will see to it that your reputation gets completely ruined around here! Like, can you say the word 'detention'?" Cordy hissed furiously.

Willow's face went white with fear at the thought of her perfect school record being marred that way, as she vigorously nodded and Ms. Chase angrily flounced away.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. A short while later**

Having decided to take Willow's advice about getting all the books they needed from the new school librarian, Xander and Buffy arrived at the library and quickly walked inside.

The library looked deserted, though. "Hello? Anybody here?" Buffy called out.

"If not, it's like you asking that is really gonna help," Xander muttered.

"Smartass," Buffy said as she slapped him absent-mindedly, the way siblings will when they annoy one another.

"Ouch!" ( _Damn Slayer strength..._ ) Xander then looked over at the counter, and saw a newspaper clipping with a picture that had been circled in red. The caption above the picture read 'Local Boy Still Missing'.

And it was at that moment the Englishman called Rupert Giles chose to come up behind him, tapping Xander on the shoulder and making him spin around. "Yah!" the male teen yelped.

"Yep, guess someone's here," Buffy observed sarcastically, as she whirled around too.

"Can I help either of you?" Giles asked softly in his Oxford accent.

"Uh, yeah, we were after some books. So it seemed kinda obvious to head over here, where the books are! I'm Xander, by the way, and this is my sister Buffy. We're new in school," the dark-haired boy clarified.

"You're Miss Summers?" Giles asked, staring directly at the blonde girl.

"Yeah."

"I'm Mr. Giles, the librarian," Rupert introduced himself. "I was told you were coming."

"Well, great! So, um, I'm gonna need 'Perspectives on 20th Century-'" the femme started to say.

"I know what you're after!" And with that, Giles pulled out a heavy, dust-covered book with the word 'VAMPYR' written in gold leaf on the front cover, and slapped it down on the counter.

"That's not what I-" Buffy started to say, before Xander cut her off. "I don't believe this! YOU'RE her new Watcher?"

Wearing a rather silly grin, Giles said simply, "Well, yes, I am-"

"Prove it."

Giles looked startled. "I, I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me. If you really are Merrick's replacement – and it's been a while, pal! – then let's see some ID," Xander said in a no-nonsense tone.

"Well, I-I-I don't...the Council didn't issue me any formal identification papers," Giles stuttered. "And what business is it of yours anyway, young man?"

Xander was instantly reminded of his first meeting with Merrick, when Buffy's first Watcher had attempted to dismiss his presence in almost this exact same way. ( _Oh yeah, better nip this in the bud right now._ )

"Because I'm the other half of this Slayage team, that's what," Xander said simply.

"That's preposterous! You, you're not a Slayer!" the new Watcher on campus exclaimed.

Brother and sister instantly looked at one another, their glances communicating a very detailed unspoken conversation. "They didn't tell you ANYTHING about us when you were assigned this job, did they?" Buffy then asked hopelessly.

"Er, what do you mean?"

"Hi! I'm Xander Summers," the male teenager suddenly smirked. "My twin sister Buffy here is the Chosen One, the vampire Slayer. Only, funny thing, when she got called about a year ago? Part of the Slayer essence ended up inside me!"

Giles's legs almost gave out underneath him. "What? You mean..."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm no Chosen superhero like she is. I mean, Merrick trained me as much as he could, and I'm okay with an axe or a crossbow – but just an ordinary human, here. Apart from the fact that I'm the one who gets the prophetic Slayer dreams, and can sense the vamps. Buffy's still the one who can kick ass and stake 'em, without even breaking a nail."

"What he said. And please, whatever else happens – no Donnie and Marie jokes, okay?" Buffy said in a snarky voice.

"Well, this, this, this is completely and utterly unprecedented, as far as I know," Giles said, starting to scratch his head and ignoring the pop-cultural reference. "I'm rather flummoxed-"

"What's with the flum? Obviously, you weren't in the loop, 'cause somebody thought you didn't need to know," Buffy noted. "And by the way? Much as I'd like to continue talking about the old days, and all the fun which wasn't, we've got class to attend. Guess we'll have to get the books later. Let's go, Xander!"

So saying, the empowered female warrior for the Light yanked her big brother out of the library, as Rupert just stared after them in dismay.

* * *

**The Girls' Locker Room, Sunnydale High. Not long before lunchtime**

A couple of cheerleaders were discussing the two latest additions to the student population just as Cordelia came into the locker room. And they weren't exactly airheads, but neither were they the brightest stars in the heavens either.

"The new guy and his sister? Well, I heard she passed the cool test and he looks pretty cute, but what kind of names are Buffy and Xander anyway?" the redhead named Aphrodesia asked. "Oh, hey Cordy!" the girl then called out, acknowledging the brunette's entrance immediately.

"Cordelia, hi!" Aura the black girl saluted her too.

"Aura, Aphrodesia, hey!" Cordelia greeted back. "What are we talking about?"

"That guy, Xander something," Aphrodesia said.

"What have you heard?" Cordy went into full gossip mode, which was the real reason why she'd come here today in the first place.

"Well, the latest chatter in the caf is that he got kicked out of his last school after burning down the gym, and that's why the family had to relocate here to Sunnydale," Aura remarked, working the combination to her locker and starting to remove the padlock.

"No!" Cordelia said in surprise. ( _Oh my God, don't tell me he's a complete psycho? My guy radar CAN'T be that far off!_ )

"Oh, yeah!" Aphrodesia nodded. "And the worst part is, I heard that Alexander Summers used to be such a prize catch before all that! Swim team, baseball team, you name it..."

"Neg?" Ms. Chase asked. ( _Hmmm, maybe there's still hope for that guy yet!_ )

"Pos!" Aura said, just as she opened her locker. "I heard from Blu that-"

Darla's meal from the previous night fell out onto her arm, and the male corpse then collapsed to the floor. So naturally of course, all three teenaged girls started screaming their lungs out in horrified terror.

TBC...


	3. Heart Of Darkness

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far – and wow, over a dozen reviews already? Color me astonished! But there's a downside, of course, because reviews are like an addictive drug – the more you get, the more you want. And believe me, every author needs his daily fix! So please, keep 'em coming...

* * *

**Part III: Heart Of Darkness**

**The underground prison of the Master, Sunnydale. A few hours later**

After Buffy and Xander had found out about the corpse on campus and learned that he was a vampire victim, a very worried Giles had told the two teens in private that there was a reason why the Slayer had moved to the Hellmouth, here and now. And it wasn't because her brother had been kicked out of Hemery High and this was the only school Hank and Joyce had found willing to accept him. There had been signs and portents for a while now that something huge and apocalyptic was coming soon.

But even the Watcher, for all his intellect, wasn't able to grasp the full extent of the problems facing them – as in the Master's lair, a horde of vampires bearing burning torches gathered together.

"The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake. The sleeper will wake, and the world will bleed. Amen!" the centuries-old vamp known as Luke chanted.

"Oh, please. Could that possibly sound any more like a cheesy pep rally?" a distinctive and sardonic male voice rang out.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea and three newcomer vampires to the Hellmouth entered Luke's field of vision: Darla, Angelus and Drusilla.

"Darla," Luke spat out towards his one-time equal, not appearing to acknowledge the others as they approached him. "You shouldn't have come back, at least not with him!"

"That's always been your problem, Luke; feeling threatened by strong women. Me, I like 'em!" Angelus smirked, as he got behind Drusilla and squeezed her breasts, making her squeal in delight.

Luke scowled in disgust. "Why are you here, Angelus? Or should I call you Angel?"

Angelus suddenly snarled, "You wanna know why I'm here? To do this!"

The Scourge of Europe was already in game face, and with unbelievable speed staked Luke directly in the heart, making him explode into ashes. He then glared at the rest of the vamps, who had begun to angrily murmur amongst themselves, "Anybody here got a problem with that?"

The muttering instantly stopped. Drusilla suddenly called out, "The King of Cups expects a picnic! But this is not his birthday."

All of the undead briefly stared at her before dismissing the nonsensical statement. Darla looked around before saying, "Look, I know most of you, just like you know me. We've come here for the Master's ascension, and no doubt he'll deliver his judgement upon us when he awakens. So until then, just go about your duties!"

Most of those gathered looked unwilling to obey her, but they all did so anyway because disagreement with those of superior ability didn't exactly operate to lengthen the span of un-life. Angelus let Drusilla walk off into the cave and said to his sire lovingly, "You really think the old bat nose will accept us back, just like that?"

Darla frowned at him. "Don't call him that, dear boy. Not even in private! This isn't 1760 any longer..."

* * *

**Main Street, Sunnydale. Later that night**

Xander and Buffy's after-school conversation with their mother had not gone well.

Deep down the poor woman had been hoping her family had left that...that year-long insanity in Los Angeles behind them. But to learn that there were also vampires in this town, that nothing had changed...well, it had felt like her hopes and dreams were being completely shredded apart again.

At any rate, after a worried farewell from Joyce – who had told both teenagers that she was almost ready to set up her art gallery here in town, just before Hank had called again – Buffy and Xander had set off to check out the only teen hangout in this one-Starbucks town: the Bronze.

They were walking down the darkened street, when the Chosen One noticed her twin's face. "What?"

Xander scrunched his forehead in distaste. "They're everywhere, Buffy. I can feel them now all over the place. It's like this entire town is INFESTED with the damn things!"

It was times like this that Buffy was really glad she hadn't gotten the whole Slayer ESP-detection deal, that Merrick had explained about back in the early days of her calling. She remembered how the Council operative had been very surprised when he'd learned how Buffy was completely unable to sense the undead. The only other Chosen One he'd known of with such a lack of ability had apparently been a Hungarian gypsy girl, back in the early 17th century.

"Xander?" Ms. Summers suddenly asked, noticing his change in expression.

Suddenly, the guy stopped dead. "Over there." He pointed to a dark alley.

"How many?" Buffy asked as she took out her stake, ready to slay.

"No, wait..." Xander suddenly looked confused. "Not...a bloodsucker. Demon of some kind, though."

The two teens carefully ventured into the alley, and as they did so someone stepped out of the darkness. "About time you two got here!" Whistler's aggrieved voice rang out.

"Demon?" the Slayer asked, before looking at Whistler's outfit. "Or just a major fashion victim?" she added sarcastically.

"Ha, ha," the balance demon said grumpily. "Look-"

"He's starting to freak me out, even though I don't know why," Xander interrupted, staring at their new acquaintance. "Who are you?"

"Name's Whistler, or at least lately it is. As for the rest of it – yeah I'm a demon, but I'm also like your godfather," Whistler said, staring at Xander and for the first time ever feeling proud of his handiwork. ( _Guess you turned out all right, huh? Well, I sure as hell hope so, anyway. _)

"Oh, please. A demon godfather? Next thing you know, you'll be saying that I have a vampire boyfriend!" Buffy said sarcastically.

( _Sure, like that could ever happen,_ ) the balance demon thought sarcastically to himself. Then the short guy tried to focus, as he had a very important message to impart here after all.

"Thing is...I'm not a bad guy, Slayer," Whistler said, even as he addressed both of the twins. "Believe it or not, not all demons are dedicated to the destruction of all life. And I promise ya, I've been watching over you and your other half here – ever since before you two were born."

Buffy and Xander glanced at one another before the male part of the equation asked, "Okay, now, just for the sake of argument – why's that, Whis?"

Whistler scowled at the boy's unwelcome nickname. "I don't have all the answers, and even if I did – I'm guessing I wouldn't be allowed to tell you. But basically, something went wrong 117 years ago. And for the last hundred or so years, pal, a vamp's been constantly dreaming about you-"

"Huh?" "What?" Buffy and Xander demanded in incredulity at the same time.

"Oh yeah, that particular broad? She's a complete undead nut job, but she still has the sight. And I swear, it's been a hell of a thing hiding you two from her for the last 16 years, lemme tell you! But that's all over now. On account of you guys are standing on the mouth of Hell, and it's about to open!"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" the blonde girl demanded irritably, starting to get a creepy feeling about all this.

"For now, it means you white hats gotta get ready for the Harvest. See, my problem is...the guy who was originally supposed to fill you in and stand guard over you, sweetcheeks? He couldn't make it to the party, at least not the way he was supposed to. That's why Big Brother over there got drafted for this gig! Now take my advice..." the demon tossed Buffy and then Xander a small box. "Don't either of you turn your backs on this."

Xander was instantly suspicious. "What else do you know? And what exactly did you mean by me getting 'drafted'?"

The balance demon shook his head, reminding himself never to use the name 'Harris' within this boy's hearing. "One day, maybe, you'll find out. But not from me."

Both teens opened their boxes when their mystery benefactor vanished back into the shadows, and they saw the silver crosses within for them to wear around their necks.

"Intense," Buffy said simply.

"I'm thinkin' it could be Watcher time," Xander agreed.

* * *

**The underground prison of the Master, Sunnydale. The same time**

Angelus watched in apparent boredom, as the 600-year-old vampire called the Master rose out of a pool of blood and Darla knelt before him. "Master!"

The Master, otherwise known as Heinrich Nest, stared down at her thoughtfully. She had been his favorite for centuries, after all. "Darla..."

In his own insulting way his grandchilde felt it was time to break the ice with a, "Hi there!"

The Master instantly whirled around and fastened his non-human eyes upon the other vampire. "Angelus?"

"In the flesh, Master."

Nest didn't miss the slightly mocking tone, but in his current state he decided not to press the issue. "When last we spoke, Darla informed me that the curse is no more. Is this true?"

The dark-haired vampire said with a genuine smile, "Had a soul, now I'm free!"

The Master scowled at the younger vamp's wording, what with the situation he himself was currently in. "I have waited three-score years, imprisoned in this...house of worship. And now on the eve of my release, the first thing I see is your face?"

Angelus grinned. "So you missed me, then?"

The Master's features curled into a blood-curdling smirk. "You were the most vicious creature I ever met, boy. And I once promised you that you would sit at my right hand, come the day. But now..."

"...the big day's here, and ya got someone else in mind?"

The Master ignored Angelus's words and looked towards his former favorite. "Where's Luke, Darla?"

"He pissed me off, so I killed him," Angelus said before his sire could say anything.

In a flash the Master grabbed his potential victim by the neck and spat out, "You would forfeit your existence to me so easily, callow child?"

Darla looked worried, four centuries in age or not. But to his credit the 244-year-old vamp didn't flinch. Angelus just kept smirking, "Not if you want our help with the Harvest, now that that idiot's pancake mix!"

The Master's red-gold eyes seemed to blaze in fury, till Darla said, "Forgive me, but it's evident you're still weak, Master. Only from the Harvest will you truly be restored and released from this foul place!"

The vampiric Heinrich Nest unexpectedly released Angelus, who just disdainfully rubbed his throat. But before he had the chance to say anything further a lost and trembling female voice called out, "Daddy? Grandmother?"

The three vamps turned around to face Drusilla as she wandered over and then said absently, "Hello again, Great-grandfather..."

The Master faced Angelus with a strange expression, but Angelus just continued to smirk at his grandsire. Nest then quickly tested the limits of his mystical confines, but they were still as strong as ever. In exasperation the Master beckoned to Dru, "Come closer, my child."

Drusilla immediately obeyed, but then stopped. "Daddy? I can't see her. The Slayer. I can't see. It's too dark where she is. Kill her. Kill her, Daddy. Kill her for me?"

The Master turned to Darla, his expression instantly dark and ominous. "There is a Slayer here, now?"

"This is the first I've heard of it," Darla shook her head.

"Doesn't matter, my Dru's never wrong about this sort of thing. If she says there's a Slayer here, then there's a Slayer here," Angelus said forcefully, as he reconsidered his previous strategy in light of this new development. Then the male vamp said to Dru, who had started to whimper, "Hush, Drusilla. We'll take care of the Slayer, all right? Just calm down."

The Master looked at him thoughtfully. "The Harvest approaches and I must be ready. I need my strength."

The former vampire with a soul shrugged, albeit in a calculated way. "You want us to bring you a quick meal, then?"

Nest smiled at the veiled peace offering, in a way that would have chilled any mortal's blood. "Bring me something...young."

TBC...


	4. Bronzin' It

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed and emailed. I appreciate it all, and for those reviewers I can't email back to say thanks, I'm saying it here. And I truly hope I won't let your faith in me down. And now, on with the story...

* * *

**Part IV: Bronzin' It**

**The Bronze, Sunnydale. Later that night**

Xander stepped through the doors into the nightclub after paying the admission price, and was promptly shocked as he recognized the place from his dream that morning. ( _Uh-oh. This don't look good..._ )

After the...interesting meeting with Whistler, he and Buffy had split up to find Giles. Xander had tried the school, while the Slayer had tried the Watcher's apartment, but Rupert had not been present in either place. The siblings had agreed to meet up later and, if there was time, check out the Bronze.

And so Xander had shown up at the club, hoping to find Buffy there. It never once occurred to him that someone as old as Giles might be present as well.

The young man looked around, scoping things out. He saw groups of teens clustered together; some his own age, some older or younger, chatting and laughing. Horsing around, or not. With or without dates.

Larry, Devon and Oz. Tucker, Andrew and Jonathan. Percy, Hogan and John Lee.

Xander suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine. This place had inadvertently brought back memories of LA and Hemery High, of the times he had spent fooling around with his three closest buddies before he'd learned all about the things that went bump in the night. After Merrick had finally found his Slayer in the City of Angels.

His best friends. Tyler, Grueller and Andy.

All three of them were dead now, killed by the vampires Lothos and Amilyn.

Xander shook his head, clearing away the bad memories. He looked around and finally spotted the brunette girl he was looking for, thanks to his prophetic Slayer dream. ( _What am I supposed to do about you? I can't just say, 'beware of vampires, and don't dance with any of them'!_ )

Still – looking at Cordelia Chase talking to her friends in the club, and obviously acting as the queen bee of the group, Xander couldn't also help thinking that this was exactly the type of girl that he might have pursued six months ago. She certainly had a face and body dazzling enough to drool over.

But dating Cordelia almost certainly wasn't an option now. Not under these circumstances. The male teen still had nightmares about what had happened to one of Buffy's friends called Nicole, who had been more than slightly interested in him back in Los Angeles.

As Xander watched, Jesse approached Ms. Chase and her entourage. Cordelia didn't appear to notice as she said to her friends, "My mom doesn't even GET out of bed anymore. And the doctor says it's Epstein-Barr. I'm like, pleeease! It's chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome. I mean, NOBODY cool has Epstein-Barr anymore!"

( _Then again, maybe I don't have to worry about being attracted to her after all. She suddenly reminds me way too much of pre-Slayer Buffy!_ ) Xander frowned.

"Hey, Cordelia!" McNally tried to look suave and debonair, but only succeeded in appearing dorky and vulnerable as he launched his first opening line.

The Chase girl instantly made a face. "Oh, yay, it's my stalker!"

The boy tried to butter her up a bit. "Hey, you, uh, you look great!"

Cordelia just looked at Jesse like he was a bug, one that the beauty queen wanted to stomp underneath her shoe. "Well, I'm glad we had this little chat."

Her suitor suddenly appeared nervous and pretty much just coughed out, "Listen, uh, you know, you wanna dance, you know?"

Cordy shared a look of disbelief with her Cordettes. "With you?"

"Well, uh, yeah."

"Well, uh, no!" Cordelia said savagely, as the sheep smirked.

"Then could I have the honor of the next dance?"

All the girls and Jesse turned around to see who was the owner of that voice. And several of the females present felt their eyes go wide at the new arrival's muscular physique, as Cordelia seemed to size up the new boy and said casually, "Xander Summers, isn't it?"

"That it is, Cordelia Chase."

Cordy looked carefully noncommittal as she considered Xander's reply. ( _He knows who I am? Oh, come on, of course he does!_ ) "Well, let's see. Dance with you? Hmmm, I'll have to think about it..."

( _A bit full of yourself, aren't you? And to think, I'm not even getting paid to do this!_ ) An annoyed Xander came a bit closer, "What's there to think about? Answer's either yes or no. Or are you hinting that you can't dance?"

Cordy felt her hazel eyes go wide with shock, as many of the Cordettes almost whined in dismay. "What? Of all the NERVE! Oh, you better believe that I can dance, mister-"

"So prove it."

The cool in-crowd began to whisper feverishly amongst themselves as Xander and Cordelia faced off, and Jesse said, "Hey, pal, why don't you just-"

But Xander just kept his brown eyes locked onto Cordy's and said simply, "One dance, just to satisfy my curiosity. Think of it as a 'Welcome to Sunnydale' present."

"Sorry. But I think you're mistaking me for someone in the charity business," Cordelia replied, her voice now ice-cold.

"And I think you're just afraid to dance with me," Xander said with a hint of scorn.

Well, of course that was a clear challenge that simply couldn't be ignored in the cutthroat world of American teenagers. So Cordy said scathingly, "Fine! I'll show you. One dance it is!"

Jesse just watched in disbelief as his beloved led his new rival out onto the dance floor. "How...how did he just do that?"

None of the Cordettes even bothered to reply, their eyes glued to the mismatched couple walking away from them.

The band playing at the club that night, who were in fact called "Sprung Monkey", suddenly switched to a slow romantic ballad; just as the two brunettes got onto the crowded dance floor. Thus, Xander held his arms out with a slight smile. Grimacing, Cordelia moved into his embrace and they started to dance.

Although, to the girl's surprise, this guy seemed to be a better dancer than she'd anticipated.

"I have to admit it. You're not half-bad," Ms. Chase finally remarked, a few moments later.

"Neither are you," Xander replied, mellowing a little from his previous attitude. "But you shoulda seen me two years ago. I was a complete spaz with two left feet! Thing is my Aunt Arleen saw me dancing once, and she got so embarrassed by what I was doing she decided to pay for dance lessons..."

The music was soft and almost hypnotic, and Cordelia finally relaxed into her dance partner's arms. "So. You're from LA, right?" she asked meaningfully.

"Born and bred."

"Oh, you're so lucky! I'd kill to be so close to that many shoes!" The girl suddenly turned to look into Xander's face. "So tell me – did you really burn down your old high school gym? It's been all the gossip around campus today!"

The youth grimaced. "Wonderful. And in my defense my sister was in trouble then and I had to...help her out that night."

"You guys are real close, huh?" Cordelia felt a brief pang from the fact that she was a neglected only child.

"Well, yeah. But you wanna hear something funny? Up until a year ago, twin thing or not, Buffy and I had hated each other's guts for ages," Xander replied, with a funny look on his face. "I mean, she was like a complete airhead until she-" The boy then instantly shut up, cursing himself for almost mentioning the Slayer stuff. ( _What the hell's the matter with me? Get a grip, asshole – and no, not of her ass!_ )

"Until she what?" Cordelia asked curiously.

"Nothing, doesn't matter," Xander quickly changed the subject, "So, you got any brothers or sisters?"

"No. And since we're having this touching reconciliation moment?" Cordelia instinctively put on her haughty mask, "Some free advice for you. You wanna fit in here, the first rule is: know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight, they're a lot easier to avoid," she said with a quick glance around.

"Appearances, they're very important to you. Aren't they, Cordelia?"

The female teen looked at Xander in sudden apprehension. "What did you just say to me?"

"No offense, but from what I've seen so far I'm pretty sure it's true. And lemme guess – your friends over there watching us dance, you're not even sure if the minions really like you for you, huh? But you still hang out with them, 'cause it beats being alone by yourself."

"Minions?" Cordelia said dangerously, even as she battened down the hatches on her emotions from Xander's uncannily accurate insights into her life.

The Hemery High School outcast again silently cursed his phrasing, and letting the jargon from the Slayage part of his life slip out. "Sorry, obviously a bad choice of words. So, what should I call them – flunkies? Worshippers? Groupies? None of the above?" Xander suddenly smirked at his companion, trying to play it off like he was hitting on her.

It apparently worked, as Cordelia instantly scowled at him. "You know what? I'm really starting to not like you!"

Xander suddenly pulled her close as a distraction, and he could feel her suddenly-racing heartbeat as Cordy's magnificent chest crushed against his. Then the boy whispered to her, "Ditto!"

Cordelia's breath hitched in her throat as her hormones surged, ( _Oh yeah, I can tell that this guy definitely works out!_ ) Then she gaped in surprise as the song ended, and Xander instantly let her go. "What-? What are you doing?"

The son of Hank and Joyce Summers looked at her in surprise. As the band started playing a louder and faster song he pulled her out of the way of the crowd and said, "Just one dance. That was the deal, right?" Suddenly Xander saw Giles up on the upper level and hurriedly added, "Listen, Cor, thanks for the dance. But, uh, I gotta go talk to someone! 'Scuse me, I'll see you at school tomorrow. And thanks again..."

Cordelia looked justifiably horrified at the prospect of a guy, and especially this one, just blowing her off like this. As Harmony and the others came up to the dark-haired girl she seethed, "You, you, you – JERK!"

"Did that guy just ditch you?" one of the more thoughtless girls asked the leader of the pack, instantly regretting it when the full force of Cordelia's ire became focused on her.

"Kate, can you say the words 'downward mobility'? Because NO ONE does that to me! No one. Period. Understand?"

All of the followers nodded and Queen C took a deep breath, "Fine. Well, just so you all know, I'd say that I've conclusively proved to that loser that I can dance! And now, we can all move on. So, what were we talking about before that idiot Jesse showed up?"

"Your mother," the Cordette named Lisa piped up.

"Right! Well, as I was saying, my mom supposedly has Epstein-Barr..."

* * *

**Elsewhere in the Bronze. A few minutes earlier**

Jesse McNally couldn't believe it as he saw Cordelia consorting with the...the ASSHOLE who'd butted in, just when he was asking his one true love to dance with him.

And while most of the Cordettes figured that their supposed idol was seriously contemplating getting her hooks into the new boy in town, Jesse just felt his heart getting squeezed tighter and tighter at all the liberties Xander was being casually granted – that he never was.

Finally, the young man saw his evil enemy pull Cordelia in so close that their lips were practically touching before the bastard whispered something in her ear. He simply couldn't take it anymore, ( _Oh Lord, I think I'm gonna hurl! Where's Willow? I need my best friend..._ )

Buffy had arrived at the club by then and the redhead greeted her, "Oh, hi!"

"Hey," the Chosen One greeted back as she settled down onto the other stool. "Oh, is this seat taken?" Buffy asked.

"No, I'm here by myself. But I'm sure Jesse will pop by soon after he strikes out with Cordelia again," Willow rolled her eyes.

Buffy looked at her companion. "Okay, I gotta say it. Meow!"

Willow looked astonished, then pleased. "Really? Thanks! No one's ever said that to me before."

Buffy settled in for some girl talk, having made friends with the cute nerd during lunchtime at school today. "So, spill. You and Jesse used to date?"

"Yeah, but we're just friends now. See, we used to go out, but then we broke up," Willow replied dreamily.

"What happened?" Buffy asked.

"He stole my Barbie." Off the Slayer's look of confusion, the Rosenberg girl explained, "Oh, we were five at the time."

Just then, Jesse joined them; completely ignoring Buffy's presence as he started off by saying, "Will, I need your advice. Where can I get my hands on some quick-acting poison, preferably of the lethal variety?"

Willow looked shocked and startled, "What?"

Jesse then said quickly, "No, no, don't worry, it's not for me. It's for the dude who's been putting his filthy hands all over my Cordelia tonight! I mean, who the hell does that guy think he is? Just showing up in town outta nowhere, and then straightaway horning in on my territory?"

Having seen Xander and Cordelia dancing, Buffy was almost laughing on the inside. The situation had reminded her of an episode of 'Friends' a bit too much for the Slayer to take Jesse's words seriously.

( _Myself, I figure you've got nothing to worry about. A, because Xander's been burned once too often in that department before. B, because I'm sure my big brother doesn't think that he suddenly owns Cordelia. And C, because somebody here sure is acting like the jealous boyfriend!_ )

"Are we talking about my brother, Xander?" the Slayer then asked with a straight face.

"Yeah, that Alexander Summers dude-" Jesse started to say in reply to Buffy's query, before his brain finally caught up to his mouth. The dark-haired boy suddenly looked like a deer caught in headlights as he stared at the blonde girl. "Uh, uh, I mean..."

Willow decided to step in and save her crush from putting his foot even further into his mouth. "Hey, did you know that "Alexander" means "defender of mankind" in Greek?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Buffy grimaced. "See, back during eight grade, Xander sorta went through this whole "Alexander the Great" phase? Ugh, major embarrassment! Fortunately, the whole namesake dealie didn't last long."

"I'm kinda surprised that your first name doesn't begin with an A as well, actually. I mean, don't parents with twins usually do that kind of thing?" Willow wanted to know.

Buffy shrugged. "I dunno. Well, when we were born, I WAS gonna be named Anne Summers. But then that ended up my second name, for some reason that I've never really understood..."

Jesse was looking back and forth between the girls, somewhat stunned over how his words and presence had been so easily dismissed. "Um, excuse me? We were talking about my personal pain here!"

"Oh, I think you can relax," Buffy gestured towards Cordelia and her flock. "Looks like Xander didn't have any more luck with the Ice Queen than you did."

Jesse turned around and automatically said, "Oh, thank God-" before his mind registered the insult to the woman he wanted to marry one day. "Hey!"

Just then Buffy spotted Xander and Giles upstairs. She quickly got up and made her excuses, before heading out to join them.

Willow just glared at Jesse. The boy looked clueless as he asked, "What did I do?"

"Well, let's see. You threatened to kill someone, plus y-you were kinda rude and interrupted our conversation. And I think you just insulted the first real friend I've made in about ten years," Willow said, showing a bit of backbone for once.

The McNally boy cringed in dismay and instantly went into grovel mode.

* * *

**The upper level of the Bronze. The same time**

Xander and Giles were talking. "So then, this Whistler doofus says he's here to warn us that we're standing on the mouth of Hell, and like it's gonna open up any second!"

Giles frowned, "Hmmm. Did he say anything else?"

"Yeah, he mentioned a crazy vamp that's apparently been looking for me since the 1800's, and also some kinda sitch called 'the Harvest'," Xander finished up.

"The Harvest?" Giles echoed in confusion, putting aside the other issue for now.

"Sounded like a majorly huge deal, anyway. That mean anything to you?" the seer asked.

"It's not really a common term in demonology, no..." Then the Watcher turned to face his young companion, "I did some telephoning today, by the way, and spoke to some people in London. Apparently, you've become quite the celebrity over there over the past year or so."

"Yeah, I know. Merrick mentioned that once before he...you know," Xander stared at the floor as the memory surfaced in his mind. The memory of that horrible gunshot echoing in the night, after he'd dragged a hypnotized Buffy away from Lothos.

"Yes, quite," Giles looked more than a little uncomfortable himself as Xander looked up again. "Anyway, a chap I know by the name of Robson said there's currently two opposite schools of thought over there. On whether or not you'll keep the Slayer dreams and senses when a new Chosen One gets activated, I mean."

"You mean, when some THING out there murders my little sister! Don't try to sugarcoat this, G-man, I'm not some ignorant civilian-"

Giles held up a hand, cutting him off. "Please don't ever call me that horrible nickname again, and I do mean EVER again!"

Xander shrugged, "Well, would you prefer G-dawg instead?"

And then, just as Giles was about to start a grand tradition and begin polishing his glasses, Buffy joined them. "There you are! Me and Xander go looking for you, and all along you were here preparing to get down and party with us students?"

Giles tried not to snort in disdain. "Oh, yes, that's my idea of fun all right. Watching...clown-hair prance about in search of some tottie with huge knockers, just in order to-"

"Guys, guys! Let's focus here," Xander quickly interjected, trying to play peacemaker as Buffy scowled at her Watcher.

"Quite right, this is the perfect breeding ground for vampire activity after all. It's dark, it's crowded...Xander? Can you sense any undead present in the building, through this infernal crowd and noise?" the British man asked.

"Oooh! There's one!" Buffy pointed down to the lower level at the creature named Thomas.

"Buffy, please. Let your brother concentrate," Giles admonished her.

"But look at the guy! Look at his jacket. He's got the sleeves rolled up, and the shirt! Please – that entire look, it's carbon-dated! Only someone living underground for ten years would still think that outfit was any sort of fashion statement!" Buffy stated emphatically.

"I think she's right," the male teen looked at Thomas as well. Then Xander's head snapped towards the door, "And I think more of them just came in!"

"Great!" Buffy grumbled to herself. "And here I just wanted my first day to be nice and normal. Why can't the damn things simply leave us alone for once?" she muttered as the trio started to head downstairs.

* * *

**The lower level of the Bronze. The same time**

Cordelia was still furious over what had happened with Xander, right down to the tips of her designer Manolo Blahniks.

She was Cordelia Chase! No one was allowed to treat her that way. Least of all some guy who had just arrived on her home turf. No matter how yummy he happened to be.

( _You so totally blew it, mister! Even with your past record, you still had the chance for a fresh start here, but then you pulled that sort of stunt on ME? Trying to wind me up for laughs like that. That's a big no-no around here!_ )

But suddenly she caught sight of a tall older guy dressed in black, and all thoughts of Xander Summers instantly flew out of Miss Popularity's mind.

It wasn't that Queen C was completely fickle that way; it was just that she had a thing for black leather pants, and had always been destined to be attracted to the vampire with Angel's face.

If she hadn't been so overwhelmed by the undead guy's presence, maybe the girl would have wondered why a man who looked at least ten years older than her had started flirting with jail bait like herself. But unfortunately, her recent experience had left Cordelia feeling that age simply wasn't an issue right now.

( _After all,_ ) Ms. Chase thought to herself as she ditched her friends and started to leave the club with Angelus, ( _it's not like I'm gonna marry this guy or anything!_ )

What the young woman didn't know was that her life expectancy could now be measured in minutes, if not seconds.

TBC...


	5. Of Back Alleys And Historic Meetings

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks again to everyone who has sent me some feedback, good or bad; it feeds the addiction. Hmm, the last chapter didn't get all that many hits or reviews though. Therefore, that begs the question: should I keep going with this story?

* * *

**Part V: Of Back Alleys And Historic Meetings**

**The Bronze, Sunnydale. January, 1997**

Buffy was feeling incredibly embarrassed, not to mention worried that her social life was now on the critical list, thanks to mistakenly attacking Harmony with her stake near the back of the club. Well, maybe that was all for the best. After all, the next three years weren't exactly going to give her a lot of time to be part of the popular crowd anyway.

Meeting up with Xander and Giles again after failing to find Thomas the vampire, the British man said to the Slayer, "Well, that was quick. Well done! Uh, I-I'd best get going to the library. This Harvest thing-"

"I didn't get him. That DeBarge wannabe is still around somewhere," Buffy interrupted her new mentor. "Xand?"

The young man concentrated. "I'm not getting anything close by-"

"They've all left? Damn it!" the Chosen One exploded.

"No vampire would, um, would leave a place like this empty-handed. Most likely, some poor unfortunates they've picked up are, are going to be killed..." Giles started to stammer.

"I'll take the back, you take the front!" Xander said to Buffy as he started to move off.

Buffy called out, "Be careful!" Then she turned to Giles, "And you, get with the book learning already!" before she rushed off.

As the Watcher obediently headed for the front door, he failed to spot Willow and Jesse starting to follow after Buffy...

* * *

**Outside the back of the Bronze. A few seconds later**

"I have a dream, you know. It's me on the cheerleading squad, adored by every varsity male as far as the eye can see! My philosophy is we have to try to achieve our dreams, right? Otherwise we...we wither and die! And I don't want to die till I've really made my mark in this world, you know what I'm saying?" Cordelia was acting chagrined, yet still pretty and accessible. In her own mind, at least.

For his part, Angelus was already bored out of his brain. ( _Vapid little motor-mouthed idiot!_ ) Then he grinned to himself, ( _Mmmm, maybe when the Master feeds on you, he'll choke to death on your blood! That's my dream, anyway._ )

"HEY!"

Cordelia stopped and turned around, her features turning into an angry scowl when she recognized the new arrival. "You! What do you want?"

Xander came closer, noting that the vampire she was with had also stopped alongside her. "Cordelia, get over here right now-" Then he saw Angelus's face, and his eyes went wide. "You..."

The former Angel raised his eyebrows, surprise and irritation evident on his face. "Do I know you, boy?"

"No. But I know you, I've...seen you before. I know what you are, anyway," Xander replied softly as he took out a hand-carved stake out of his jacket.

"What's that for, you idiot?" Cordelia snapped. Then she screamed, when she suddenly caught sight of the male vampire's demon features. "WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THIS?"

Angelus quickly grabbed her with an evil grin on his face. As Xander's words had made him decide to skip the preliminaries and get to the fun part. "I swear, it's gonna be such a pleasure to bleed you-"

"BLEED me! Look, you asshole-" Cordy started to rant at her captor, disfigured nightmare of a face or not.

"Cordelia. Shut up and let me handle this!" Xander shouted, his eyes fixed on those of Angelus.

"So. You've decided to be this little whore's white knight, have you? Well then, let me introduce myself, boy. Name's Angelus," the soulless demon purred.

"Who are you calling a whore, you dickless son of a bitch!" Cordelia instantly screamed, unable to tolerate hearing that crack.

"Don't do it, vampire," Xander warned him as he saw the fangs descending on the girl's neck. "I'm warning you – the moment you start feeding, I'll stake you right in the heart!"

"You and what army, boy?"

"The Slayer army," Xander retorted, still desperately playing for time and trying to figure out a way to prevent Cordy from getting killed at the hands of this...thing.

Angelus cocked his head, holding Cordelia easily even as she struggled to get free. He then absently clamped a hand over her mouth when she started to scream for help, as he regarded his adversary. "Now, what would YOU know about Slayers?"

Xander decided to continue stalling. "I've seen you kill one of them, and her five-year-old son. And I'm telling you right now, that trick you used to take out Miss 1970's Harlem? It isn't gonna work on me."

Now THAT captured the vampire's interest. As far as Angelus knew, no one else had witnessed that fight between him and Nikki Wood nearly 19 years ago, or how he'd mercilessly butchered the watching Robin Wood afterwards.

Not to mention that Xander would have been in diapers back then, if he'd been around at all. So how the HELL did this mortal child know anything about all that?

"Hullo, kitten. Oooh, I've finally found you..."

Both Xander and Angelus turned to see Drusilla, and her sire groaned at the realization. ( _Satan's balls, HE'S the one who turns out to be her 'kitten'? Terrific!_ )

"Dru, this isn't a good time-" Angelus started to say.

But Xander paid him no attention as he met yet another figure from the dream this morning. "Ah, shit. Who are you?"

"I'm your destiny," the fascinated vampiress murmured, as she swayed slowly while approaching Xander. "Look at me..."

Luckily, the human figured out what she was about to attempt. "Save the hypnosis crap for the tourists, lady! If Lothos couldn't do it, what makes you think you've got any hope in hell?"

Dru paid no attention. "Come to me...BE in me..."

But the moment she got close enough, Xander's left hand shot out of his pocket, brandishing the cross in front of Drusilla's face. "That's close enough!"

Dru shrieked and stepped back, her game face appearing. "Graaaagh! Bad kitten!"

For her part, Cordelia was in a state of complete confusion and denial. ( _This is not happening. This is not happening! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!_ ) she kept repeating to herself.

The young woman had no idea what to make of it all: vampires, Slayers, and whatever other crazy stuff these people were talking about. All she knew was that she wanted to be back inside the Bronze, where everything made sense!

Thus, in a moment of instinctive self-preservation, Cordy slammed her stiletto pump down onto Angelus's foot. And then tried to hit him in the nuts with her heel, bringing her leg up and backwards at the same time.

Someone up there must have liked her, as beginner's luck came into play and the male vampire roared with pained annoyance. His grip weakened, the female teen escaped from the demon, running all-out towards the Bronze without even a glance backwards.

Xander covered her with the cross and stake, retreating back towards the dubious safety of the nightclub, before Drusilla said, "That's not very nice what you're doing, kitten!"

"The name's Xander," the boy replied. "And too bad, so sad!"

"You don't even know who you are...who you were. But I can see it..."

For some reason, Xander stopped. "What are you talking about, you undead leech?"

Angelus was looking interested, ignoring the pain just as Drusilla ignored the insult. She started to move back and forth and then chanted, "The man in the hat, so-so naughty he was...before you were born, even. Cuckoo in the nest, you are! I can see it, kitten, you're not who you would 'ave been. Magic pixie dust floating about, all 'round your head..."

( _Is she talking about that demon Whistler? What the hell is all this?_ ) "You're crazy!" Xander shouted out.

"True, but she still has the visions. She may not understand all that she sees, boy, but 140 years as a seer Drusilla's never been wrong before," Angelus looked thoughtful, as he absently said this to his prey and sized him up again. ( _I wonder..._ )

Xander's head was starting to whirl with all these revelations. ( _Holy shit, she's the vamp who's been dreaming about me for a hundred years? Oh, this is bad..._ )

"Cribs mixed, siblings switched. The Angel-beast was no more, Daddy came back! So it's all different, but also the same...oh, kitten, it's gonna be all so wonderful. The whole world will bleed, it will! Won't you come with us? I could be your new mummy..." Drusilla crooned.

"HIM? Over my dusted body!" Angelus instantly roared out, furious about Dru's wish to become this annoying child's sire.

"We can only hope, you bloodsucking motherfucker," Xander cursed his enemy, as he continued to back away.

Well, that was the final straw as far as that soulless vampire was concerned. With a loud bellow, Angelus charged at Xander and despite the cross burning him, their momentum carried both men straight into the alley wall.

Xander tried to stake his nemesis, but failed due to being in such close proximity to his undead body. Angelus was about to bite his victim, fangs gleaming under the thin sliver of moonlight, when Drusilla screamed as the stars started whispering their secrets to her.

"NOOOOO! NOOOOO! DADDY! DON'T KILL HIM!"

Dru instantly grabbed her so-called 'father' with all of her supernatural strength, and started to drag the vampire away. "The fires of dawn. Death, demons and dragons! Green light, so pretty, no, no, no – it mustn't be like that..." she muttered crazily.

Angelus was halfway tempted to just stake her and be done with it as his mad childe hauled him off. But reason and prudence stayed his hand. Even if the warning made no sense to him – or he suspected, to Dru herself – Angelus was willing to heed it for now, as the seer had obviously sensed something bad coming for all of them.

Back in the alley, Xander was slumped down on the ground, his head and neck bleeding profusely even though Angelus hadn't managed to feed for long. He sensed the injuries weren't life-threatening, but they weren't something to just brush off either.

( _Gotta get up, damn it. Might have a concussion, I need to stay awake..._ ) But the youth was more badly hurt than he'd first thought and quickly passed out.

A few minutes later, Cordelia nervously stuck her head out the door again. ( _Why the hell am I doing this?_ ) she asked herself for maybe the millionth time. ( _I was just hallucinating, that's all. I didn't see anything! Those two were obviously just high on drugs or whatever, and EXTREMELY superstitious about crucifixes! And Xander Summers obviously knew them. He's probably even in cahoots with them!_ )

But however far the Chase girl was willing to go into Sunnydale-type denial, she simply couldn't lie to herself that much. Deep down, the curvaceous brunette knew that Xander had shown up to save her, like the white knight Angelus had accused him of being. And also deep down, Cordy knew that was the real reason why she was coming back out here.

Xander hadn't come back inside the club behind her. And she might have been seriously hurt, or worse, had it not been for the actions of a boy she had almost instantly come to both detest and desire at the same time.

Cordelia quickly spotted Xander's unconscious form and gasped in horror. "Xander?" Quickly pulling out her cell phone, she dialled 911 and demanded that an ambulance come over to the Bronze as quickly as possible.

* * *

**A mausoleum in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. Ten minutes later**

Buffy Summers had not been idle while Xander had been facing down two of the most notorious killers in Europe's history.

Even though she couldn't sense the undead like her sibling, the blonde Chosen One still had a brain and a pair of eyes in her head. Asking a couple of Bronze patrons if they had seen anyone who had just walked out of the club, she had made tracks to the nearest cemetery, Willow and Jesse hot on her heels.

"This is crazy, Will," the young man had said to his best friend at the time they'd entered the boneyard. "Who the heck hangs out in a cemetery at night?"

"I don't know," Willow had replied. "I mean, an ice cream bar I could understand, but a graveyard? Something weird is going on!"

Buffy in the meanwhile had finally caught up with Darla and Thomas, who had brought their offerings here to take them underground to the Master. "Well, this is nice. I-it's a little bare, but a dash of paint, a few throw pillows...call it home!"

Both soulless vamps stared at her. "Who are you?" Darla demanded.

Buffy brought out a stake, and said to the people known as Amber Grove and Jonathan Levinson, "You guys okay?"

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked in disbelief, weak and disoriented from a bleeding neck after Darla had gotten hungry along the way.

"We need to get outta here!" Amber called out desperately, regretting more than ever her decision tonight to be daring for once.

"You're not going anywhere," Darla snarled as she vamped out.

"Not till we've fed!" Thomas vamped out too.

Buffy Summers instantly went into Slay mode. "Now, this is not in any way gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content..."

Thomas roared and charged at her like a mindless beast, but the Chosen One staked him effortlessly. "See what happens when you roughhouse?"

Darla looked at her enemy in disbelief. "I don't believe it. YOU'RE the Slayer Dru warned us about?"

Willow and Jesse were standing at the doorway to the mausoleum, and had just witnessed their first vampire going 'poof'. "Buffy?" the redhead asked uncertainly, unsure if she believed what she'd just seen.

"Willow! Jesse! Grab these two and get outta here!" Buffy called out as she prepared herself for the next battle.

Darla started to walk forward as the two new arrivals stepped inside. "Thomas was young and stupid. I'm not!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that already. About the not young thing, that is. I mean, just between us girls? Makeup is your friend! 'Cause you're looking a little worn around the eyes there..." Then Buffy noticed Willow hesitating. "Willow, go!"

"She won't get far!" Darla yelled as the fight was suddenly on.

The female vampire punched high, but Buffy easily blocked the blow. As the four teens started to leave the mausoleum, Darla went for a backhand punch but the Slayer blocked that too and followed up with a snap kick to the vampire's stomach. They traded blows and kicks for a few moments, before Buffy felt the need to speak up and say something.

"You know, deep down I just wanted to start over. Be like everybody else. Did I mention this was my first day in Sunnydale?" she quipped.

"Too bad it'll also be your last!"

The battle continued, Slayer and vampire exchanging punches and kicks. It was an even contest until Darla got the upper hand, and threw Buffy into a coffin within the mausoleum.

Elsewhere, the flashing lights of an ambulance had just left the Bronze, an unconscious Xander in the back while a concerned Cordelia watched him depart. At the library Giles was paging through an old volume and he suddenly stopped on a picture of Satan, one with lightning coming from his hand and out to a human's.

But Buffy was unconcerned about all that, as right then Darla's vampire face came into view, plunging down to bite her neck. "Supper time, finally!" the soulless demon growled.

TBC...


	6. Conference Time

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to those who have reviewed. And with regard to the question I raised in the last chapter? This story will go on! But then I thought, maybe I should make this next part somewhat more Joyce-centric for a bit of a change of pace. Plus, show what it all might have been like if the woman had known the secret right from the start. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Part VI: Conference Time**

**A mausoleum in one of Sunnydale's cemeteries. January, 1997**

It seemed that luck was with Buffy Anne Summers tonight, at least somewhat.

As Darla leaned down to bite, she accidentally burned herself on the cross given to the Chosen One earlier that evening. With a snarl, the female demon jerked away. Buffy, quickly seizing the opportunity, push-kicked Darla back from the coffin and hauled herself out.

For a moment, Buffy hesitated. Should she finish the fight with her opponent, or go make sure that the other four were okay? Looking at the furious vampire, the Slayer quickly figured it would be better not to leave an enemy like this at her back.

But then the situation changed.

Angelus stepped through the doorway to the mausoleum, and was instantly entranced by the sight of the two breathtaking blondes fighting. ( _There's no mud pit and the clothes are all wrong, but still..._ ) "Well now, who have we here?"

Buffy glanced at him after Darla was kicked away, and during that instant Angelus was overcome by a wave of lust and desire, one the likes of which he had never experienced before. He didn't understand it, but it was...cosmic, so to speak. Like the poles of destiny finally coming together.

At least, it would have been if he'd still had his soul.

The male vampire shook it off, but that moment of distraction cost him dearly. Buffy saw his game face and did a leaping reverse crescent kick; one that impacted right on the soulless vampire's mouth, slamming him to the side and away from the doorway, the blood spraying as the Chosen One changed her battle plans and ran for it.

Angelus picked himself up off the floor, cursing in Gaelic. Then he said to Darla, "Who was that?"

"Who do you think, Angelus? The Slayer!" his sire cursed. "Now, where have you been? And where's your offering for the Master?" Angelus briefly explained what had happened in the alley and why he had come back empty-handed, but Darla couldn't believe it. "Some nameless human child challenged you, and lived?"

The male vamp shrugged. "He wouldn't have if Dru hadn't stopped me-"

The female demon cursed again. "That mad little witch is more trouble than she's worth, sometimes! Where is she, anyway?"

"Wandered off again somewhere, I'd expect." Angelus looked around. "So where's YOUR meal for the ugly old bastard? Don't tell me you let them get away as well?"

Goaded beyond endurance Darla unexpectedly lashed out, her fist hitting her childe in the exact same place Buffy's foot had. "One more word out of you, and not only will you regret talking to me that way, I'll tear out your tongue and shove it up your ass! Understood?"

Angelus slowly got up again, his yellow eyes reflecting an unbelievable inner fury. Still, he knew he couldn't afford to antagonize his sire at this point. If she and the Master united against him, Angelus suspected that he would end up ashes in that underground church soon enough.

However galling it felt, he adopted a subservient attitude and simply nodded once. It seemed to calm Darla down though as she said, "Come on, then, we'll get someone else for the Master to snack on. It's not worth it trying to go up against the Slayer again tonight. Tomorrow night is the Harvest, after all!"

Angelus calmed down as well, and as Darla took his arm they gracefully walked out of the mausoleum. Then he asked, "You really think he's going to anoint you as the Vessel, though?"

Darla looked at him almost disdainfully. "Well. Who else is he going to choose, now that Luke is dust? You? I don't think so, darling!"

Although Angelus was careful not to show it, the patronizing tone of voice grated on his nerves. And for the first time EVER he seriously considered what spending eternity without his sire would be like.

And to his surprise Angelus discovered that it wasn't the nightmare that he'd thought it would be...

* * *

**Sunnydale General Hospital, Sunnydale. A short while later**

Xander lay in the hospital bed, thinking deeply.

He had woken up in a private room, with a couple of nurses hovering over him. The boy had then learned that he'd been lucky. There was no sign of a concussion, and one of the nurses had said that he should make a complete recovery from his injuries.

At that point, Xander had touched the bite marks on his neck. The two staff members had instantly frozen up before he could ask anything else, then quickly walked out of the room.

And the more he thought about it, the more all this didn't seem to make much sense.

For one thing, why would a soulless bloodsucker want to save his life? The same female vampire who, just a few seconds before, had wanted to turn him? And something else: why had the other walking corpse even listened to her?

Okay, Angelus had said that this Drusilla character was clairvoyant, precognitive, but to trust her prediction to that degree? In Xander's experience, once a vamp felt the need to feed there was no stopping them short of turning 'em into dust.

No, something was definitely wrong with this picture. And that included the official treatment he'd gotten once he'd arrived here.

Namely, what was up with the local Sunnydale police? Xander had expected to have to spin some sort of a yarn to them, like he'd done with the LAPD when the Hemery High gym had been burned down. That he'd seen a couple of people about to harm one of his classmates at school, stepped in and gotten involved in a knife fight or whatever.

But as soon as the two uniformed cops had seen the marks on his neck, they'd just muttered something about 'damn gangs high on PCP' and left.

Unfortunately, Xander didn't have time to wonder about it any further, as Joyce came tearing through the doors of his hospital room at that precise moment. The Summers woman looked semi-crazed with worry too, if the blunt truth were to be told.

"Alexander?" she called out, hope and terror obvious in her tone.

"I'm right here, Mom-"

The middle-aged woman didn't give him a chance to say anything more, as she instantly grabbed her son into a huge, bone-crushing hug. "Oh thank God! Are you all right? Where are you hurt?"

"Geez, Mom, I'm fine," Xander said with typical adolescent annoyance at such public displays of maternal affection. "I just hit my head a little, that's all."

Unfortunately, his mother quickly spotted the bandage on his neck and instantly knew he wasn't telling her everything. So Joyce turned to the nurse who had come in with her and asked politely, "Could we have some privacy, please?"

The hospital worker nodded and left the room, closing the door on her way out. Joyce then turned her patented parental glare onto her offspring. "I want the truth, young man. What really happened?"

Xander sighed and gave her a brief summary of the night's events. He glossed over the meeting with Whistler, the events at the Bronze, and what had happened in the alley afterwards. "And then I woke up here-"

"Where's your sister?" Joyce interrupted, the fear once again back in her voice.

"I don't know," Xander was forced to admit. "But I'm sure Buffy's fine-"

"Don't try to snowball me, Alexander! You don't know that! Do you have any idea how much your father and I worry about you two? I called him in Los Angeles after the hospital contacted me, you should know. And your father's on his way here right now, even as we speak-"

"You shouldn't have, Mom! I mean, Buffy and I have got this under control," Xander tried to reason with her.

Joyce's eyes went wide. "Are you-? Alexander Henry Summers, that is the most insane thing I've ever heard! That's it, I'm putting my foot down. You and your sister are not risking your lives this way anymore!"

Xander just stared at her, and Joyce suddenly felt a chill. However, all that the boy said was, "Mom, you're overrea-"

"Overreacting? OVERRREACTING? Alexander, you haven't even seen me overreact yet! I mean, for God's sake, how do you expect me to deal with all this? With boys your age I'm supposed to be worried about you doing drugs, or sneaking out to attend all-night keggers, or-or getting your girlfriend pregnant! Not worrying if when I get a phone call like that the next time, it'll be to identify your body at the city morgue!"

Xander tried to calm the hysterical woman down. "Mom, look, I know you worry about me and Buffy. I mean, that's normal, that's what moms do! But you and Dad can't protect us on this. I can't ignore the dreams and sensations that I get, just like Buffy can't ignore the fact that there are things out there killing people every night-"

"Then you should get someone else to risk their lives that way! A grown-up who understands what's involved. You two are just children!" Joyce almost shouted.

"The Slayer thing doesn't work that way, Mom. And you know that," Xander said to her, suddenly sounding far older than his years – thanks to Merrick's influence and training. "Look...if Buffy and I just ignored reality like you want for us to do, this girl I met today at school? She'd be dead outside the Bronze right now. And it's her parents who would be the ones wondering where the hell their daughter was, or grieving over her corpse at the morgue. Is THAT what you want?"

Joyce Summers turned away, not wanting to hear this with every fibre of her being. "I just don't want for you and your sister to get hurt. Is that too much to ask?" she replied, still not looking at her son.

"Lemme answer that with a question of my own, Mom. Could you look at yourself in the mirror anymore, knowing people would die if we just hid under the bed at nights – that their blood would be on your hands?"

Joyce couldn't help it, she got angry again. Angry at her son, angry at her daughter. Angry at the whole damned world for putting her family into this sort of impossible situation in the first place. But before she could open her mouth to reply to all that, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Xander called out before the woman could tell him not to.

Rupert Giles stepped inside and looked surprised to see Joyce present. "Ah, hello," he said quickly.

"Hi," Mrs. Summers replied. "Uh, who are you?"

"I'm Rupert Giles. I'm, uh, I'm the high school librarian," the British man stuttered out.

Joyce looked confused. "I see...well, I'm Joyce Summers. But, er, what are you doing here?"

"I called him," Xander said quickly. "He's Buffy new Watcher."

Instantly, Joyce lost all traces of friendliness as she glared at the Council representative. "I see," she said frostily, as her eyes narrowed angrily. "Well, you're certainly a bit different than the last one!"

Giles sighed; he'd been expecting Joyce's hostility. Indeed, her attitude was the reason for the Council's policy on removing the Potentials from their homes and families as quickly as possible, once they'd been identified. Although in this case, it was lucky they'd failed to do so, as his new charge most likely would have had a very short lifespan once she'd been called. "Mrs. Sum-"

"Let's get something straight right now, Mr. Giles. I know you have a job to do, to assist my kids in staying alive. But that doesn't mean I have to like it! Or your organization. Or whoever it is that's responsible for cursing my children this way!" She looked to Xander, "I'll be outside. Call me as soon as you two are done, okay, sweetheart?"

Xander nodded, as Joyce gave him a swift kiss on the cheek and then departed the room. Giles stared after her, "Well. Uh, that could have gone better."

"I kinda doubt it, Giles. You shoulda seen what she was like with Merrick all those months ago. Believe me, you got off easy. REAL easy!"

"I see," Rupert ruminated briefly. "Well, I take it you're basically all right. So what happened, after you and Buffy split up and left?"

Xander gave him a quick summary, only this time including all the details he'd left out when talking to Joyce. "So what do ya think?"

Giles started to polish his glasses. "Um, this is, uh, phenomenally bad, I'm afraid. Angelus is, is...when exactly did you have that Slayer dream again, the one regarding Nikki Wood?"

"Who?" Xander was confused.

"The New York Slayer who was killed by Angelus during 1978," Giles clarified. "Her Watcher was Bernard Crowley, a friend of mine based on the East Coast back then. He always wondered which vampire had killed his charge, you see."

"Oh. Uh, I had that particular dream the night before we left LA," Xander replied. "Why?"

"Well, it's just that it's...rather odd, historically speaking," Giles remarked. "That particular vampire had vanished around the turn of the century, and for decades no one had heard anything about him. Then about twenty years ago, he surfaced again – worse than ever."

"And that nutsoid female vamp he had with him?" Xander asked, deciding not to share details about the whole 'cuckoo in the nest' thing Dru had ranted about – not right now, at least.

"I don't know. I'll have to look up this Drusilla character in the Watcher diaries. I'm sure she'll be mentioned there somewhere."

"And what about this whole Harvest deal? What do we know there?" Xander wanted to know.

The Watcher suddenly checked his watch. "It's very late, I can fill you and your sister in on that tomo – uh, wait, you will be attending school, won't you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. They're just keeping me here for observation anyway," the boy snorted. "By the way, I almost forgot. The cops in this town? I think there's something kinda hinky about them..."

The two men talked for a while longer, before Giles left and Xander started pestering his mom about being released to go home and sleep in his own bed.

* * *

**The underground prison of the Master, Sunnydale. The same time**

Angelus and Darla dragged their gagged captive along while a daydreaming Drusilla tagged along behind. "Move!" the male vamp hissed at the human woman. "And stop struggling! It won't do you any good!"

They soon threw her down at the Master's feet, who looked unsympathetically at the undead couple. "Is this for me?"

"Best we could do in the time we had," Angelus growled back.

"I remember distinctly asking for something young," Heinrich Nest said in a freezing tone of voice.

"You're lucky we managed to get you anything at all! Because Dru was right, there's definitely a Slayer here on the Hellmouth!"

The Master looked annoyed at his grandchilde as he quickly sated himself on his victim's blood, before tossing the drained corpse to the floor. Then he turned to Darla, "She tasted old and stringy. Not to mention her blood reeked of fish!"

"Master, forgive me! We had more offerings, but there was trouble. The Slayer, she fought me-"

"And she still lives?" the Master hissed dangerously, after guessing the truth from the look on Darla's face. "You're making excuses now? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"No, we're just giving credit where it's due. That Slayer fought well enough to get away from me as well!" Angelus replied, stretching the truth just a little for convenience.

"She mustn't interfere with the Harvest!" the Master shouted.

"Don't worry. Slayer or not, she's just a girl. And if she somehow manages to show her face tomorrow night, we'll be ready for her!" Darla said with more certainty than she actually felt. Then she turned to Dru, "Don't you think so, Drusilla?"

The demented vampiress just stared back at her, a faraway look in her eyes. "You have burning baby crocodiles floatin' all around you, Grandmother."

Angelus snickered, and even the Master looked amused for a moment. Darla just scowled, "Serves me right for even asking...and will you stop calling me that!"

TBC...


	7. Revelations

See Part I for disclaimer and details. And thanks again, as always, to all those who have reviewed. Well, we're officially moving onto my version of "The Harvest" now, and I hope you'll like it!

* * *

**Part VII: Revelations**

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. The next day**

This morning Buffy and Xander had arrived just in time for school assembly, wondering what their second day on campus would bring after all the hijinks of the first one. Unfortunately, Hank had had to return to LA, which hadn't left Joyce a very happy woman as she'd driven her kids to the high school.

Right at this moment though, Giles was on the mezzanine level of the library, making his way down to where Buffy, Willow and Jesse were seated at the study table. Whereupon he started to lecture the gathered students.

"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their...their Hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures-"

Buffy interrupted, "And vampires."

Jesse looked like he was trapped in a bad dream, one that he wanted to wake up from as soon as possible. "Okay, we're actually talking about vampires here, right? We're having a serious conversation, with vampires in it. So, so, is anyone else besides me thinking that this is completely insane?"

"Jesse-" the Chosen One started to say.

"I mean, vampires? As in fangs and 'I vaant to suuck your bloood'?" the teenager finished up with a pointed look.

Willow looked lost. "Isn't that what we saw last night?"

Buffy shrugged. "No. No, th-those weren't vampires, those were just people in thundering need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies. A-and that guy exploding into dust? Just a trick of the light."

Off Jesse's stare the Slayer went on, "Anyway, that's what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part, I did."

Ms. Rosenberg slowly shook her head. "Oh, I, I need to sit down."

Buffy pointed out the obvious, "You are sitting down."

"Oh. Good for me," said the redhead absently.

Jesse turned to the librarian. "All right, assuming all this is on the level – I mean, vampires are...what exactly?"

Giles began to lecture again. "The books say the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human and mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's essence. He bit another, and another, and so the vampires now walk the Earth, feeding...killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to return."

The teenage boy stared at the Watcher. "So how do ya kill 'em?"

"You don't. The Slayer kills them," was the Englishman's reply.

"The what?" McNally demanded.

"For as long as there have been vampires, there's also been the Slayer. One girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight them, a Chosen One-"

Buffy interjected wryly, "He loves doing this part."

Giles looked annoyed at Buffy's flippancy. "All right. The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer. Don't tell anyone. And I think that's all the vampire information you two need to know!"

"So, uh, does, does your family know about all this?" Willow asked her new friend, still looking somewhat dazed.

"Yeah, and hey, me and Xander are a team. He senses the vamps, and then I go kill 'em!" Buffy replied matter-of-factly.

"How's that again?" Jesse demanded. Then he thought, ( _Oh man, wait, that might explain why he went after my Cordy! He's got the whole Clark Kent secret identity thing going?_ )

Buffy looked to Giles to properly explain it. So the Watcher said, "Buffy is, um, rather unique in that her, uh, twin ended up with part of the Slayer essence when she was called to her duty. There's more to being the Chosen One than just fighting skills and very fast healing, you see. Th-there's the whole mystical 'sensing the supernatural' aspect, which for some reason or another seems to have attached itself to Mr. Summers."

"So if you're twenty times stronger than normal, he's like three times as strong?" Willow asked.

"No. I mean, Xand works out as much as he can to try to keep up with me, so he's pretty much in okay shape. But he's totally normal! Just like you guys," Buffy explained.

There was almost nothing worse you could say to a teenage boy to shatter his ego in quite that way. "Right," Jesse said simply, his dreams of becoming a superhero like his new female friend suddenly going down in flames.

Giles then looked to his charge. "So, er, your confrontation with the vampires last night – you said there were two other students with you at the time?"

"Yeah, Jonathan Levinson and Amber Grove," Willow piped up. "We had to take Jonathan to the hospital, 'cause y'know, he's anemic and all. But when I spoke with Amber this morning after I went looking for her, it was like she didn't even remember what happened last night!"

"Well, the human mind does tend to repress these sorts of incidents in order to protect its sanity," Giles told her didactically. "What about Mr. Levinson?"

"He wasn't at school today, I checked," Jesse told him. "But odds are he'll repress too, right?"

"I suppose-"

Just at that moment though, Xander came into the library. "Yo, G-man? Buffy?"

"I told you before, don't call me that!" Giles said crossly as Buffy giggled.

Xander stopped at the sight of Jesse and Willow. He could easily perceive McNally's scowl and the Rosenberg girl's look of consternation, and so the guy said, "Uh, Buff? I need to talk to you...about last night..."

"Everyone here knows, Xander. Jesse and Willow were with me last night and they saw everything, so no need to speak in code," his sister said with a shrug.

"Really?" the young man gazed at the blonde's new buds. "Huh. You know, I just can't help feeling that the more people who know the big secret, the more it cheapens it for the rest of us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy wanted to know.

"Well, it's about Cordelia-"

"What about her?" Jesse asked at once

"She wanted to talk to me today. Apparently, she's the one who found me outside the Bronze last night and called for an ambulance. And call me a pessimist, but I don't think she's repressed seeing those two vamps last night either," Xander said with a sigh.

"What? You put Cordelia's life in danger that way?" Jesse demanded angrily.

The reactions to this were many and varied. Willow gazed at him in equal parts despair and hopeless love. Buffy looked at her classmate in annoyance and irritation. Giles simply glanced at Jesse for barely a moment, concentrating on other matters.

But Xander's stare was just pure curiosity before he replied, "Actually, I saved her life from a vamp that she'd willingly left the Bronze with, on account of she didn't know what he was."

"Oh. Right," Jesse said in sudden embarrassment, sinking down into his chair. "Sorry, dude."

"So, what do we do? I mean, we have to tell somebody about all this, right? Like, like the police?" Willow asked timidly.

Giles snorted, "And they'd believe us, of course?"

Xander added, "Besides, I got me a real funny feeling from the two cops I met last night. They seemed...kinda weird."

"Well, I, I was just wanting to help," Willow replied, looking embarrassed.

"Well, then help me. I've been researching this Harvest affair-" Giles started to say.

"What?" Jesse and Willow asked at the same time.

"It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, Hell on Earth, all quite charmless really. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. If any of you are able to assist-" Rupert started to say with a questioning tone.

Just then, the bell outside the library could be heard to start ringing, and the four teenagers got up and headed outside. They split up to head for class, and Jesse said to his red-haired best friend as they walked along, "This really is for real, isn't it?"

"Yup," Willow nodded, still coming to grips with the enormity of it all.

"Man. Yesterday, it's like my life was all 'damn it, pop quiz?' Now it's 'watch out for the vampires at night, 'cause they'll kill you'. Is that seriously out there, Will, or what?"

Willow had no answer for him as they headed towards Miss Frank's English class for the next period.

* * *

**Sunnydale High, Sunnydale. Later that day**

Xander was fighting off a bad case of the jitters as he walked down the school corridor.

So far he'd had Biology class with Dr. Gregory, History with Mr. Baird, and Phys. Ed with Mr. Herrold. But he'd been unable to focus, as his mind had constantly kept coming around to the events of last night.

And to Xander's relief, he now finally had a minute to stop by the library, and try to learn what was new. Xander walked in to find Giles and Buffy looking over some books. "Hey. What's the up, guys?" he asked.

The Watcher stared at him briefly, sorted through the pile on the table and then lifted up a daguerreotype of Darla, Angelus and Drusilla. "Either of you recognize any of them?"

"Him and her," Xander said, pointing to Angelus and Dru.

"Her, definitely," Buffy added, pointing to Darla. "Can't be sure about the guy 'cause all I saw was the vamp face, but the hair color matches, so I'd go with my first guess and say that's our vampire."

Giles adjusted his glasses. "Meet Darla, Angelus and Drusilla. They belong to the Order of Aurelius. They're, um, a sect of vampires who consider themselves the, the select, the elite if you will. The worst of the worst, as far as we're concerned."

"How old are these bloodsuckers?" Xander wanted to know.

"Not one of them is under a century in age, I'm afraid. Angelus is at least 200 years old according to my sources. And he sired Drusilla back around 1860, apparently. As for Darla...well, no one's quite sure how old she is, but the first reliable sighting of her was reported back in the early part of the 17th century."

"So where do you think we could find 'em?" Buffy asked.

"Underground somewhere, no doubt. But according to the information Willow wrested from that dread machine earlier, there are an endless series of caves and tunnels that run underneath this entire town in all directions. The odds of finding their lair would be analogous to finding a needle in a haystack the size of Sunnydale itself," Giles estimated pessimistically.

"Giles?" Xander suddenly spoke up, looking very troubled. "I gotta ask. Why would that Drusilla chick really be so interested in me? Not to mention decide to save my life? Some of the stuff she said last night...I haven't been able to get it out of my head."

"What do you mean?" the Slayer asked at once.

The boy hesitated before saying, "Does the phrase 'cuckoo in the nest' mean anything to you guys?"

Giles looked surprised. "The cuckoo is a member of the Cuculidae family, that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds which then raise the baby cuckoos – often at the expense of their own young. But what's that got to do anything?"

Buffy just stared at her new trainer. "You're like an encyclopaedia with arms, aren't you? Is there anything you don't know everything about?"

Rupert shrugged. "Synchronized swimming. Complete mystery to me, I'm afraid." Then he turned back to address Xander, "And I wouldn't pay too much attention to whatever crazed ramblings Drusilla may have uttered. Whatever it is that's troubling you, it's almost certainly the product of a deranged mind. The books are quite clear on the fact that Angelus drove the poor woman completely insane, and also hint that he visited all sorts of tortures upon her before he finally turned Drusilla into one of the undead."

"Sounds like a real prince," Buffy said in distaste. "Even if that guy does look like quite the hottie!"

"Well, they didn't call him 'the one with the angelic face' for nothing, I'm afraid. And, and back in the day he used all of his...assets to earn himself the title of 'The Scourge of Europe'," Giles remarked, closing the book.

Xander suddenly had the strangest feeling of...something. He looked at his sister, feeling like he had to...warn her about this so-called Scourge, for some reason. And yet looking at her face, it was clear that Buffy had already dismissed Angelus as just another vampire who was soon going to get acquainted with Mr. Pointy.

The boy didn't and couldn't understand it. But suddenly he KNEW that dealing with Angelus and his two female consorts simply wasn't going to be that easy.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. Later that lunchtime**

Giles and Xander were alone at the table, leafing through books, when Cordelia Chase blasted through the doors to their sanctum. "God, Xander, finally! There you are!" she exclaimed upon seeing the boy she'd been looking for all day.

Rupert looked at the new arrival and frowned. "Uh, can I help you?"

"No! I'm just here to talk to him," Cordelia only barely acknowledged the British man's presence.

"I'm sorry, but have we met? I...I don't recall ever seeing you in here before."

"Well, duh! Because I have a life! And the name's Cordelia Chase. Look, could we possibly have some privacy?" Oddly, the girl somehow made it sound more like an order than a question.

Xander and Giles shared a brief look, before the Watcher nodded and went into his private office. As soon as the door was closed Cordelia turned to Xander and said imperiously, "I demand an explanation!"

"For what?"

Queen C instantly looked very annoyed. "For what happened last night, of course!"

Xander shrugged. "You have a thing for older men?"

Cordelia nearly flew into an uncontrolled rage. ( _Is my pain just a joke to this guy?_ ) "So very funny. Any minute now, I am sure to laugh!"

The young man sighed. "Yeah, well, sorry. Oh, before I forget, thanks for calling that ambulance last night. I mean, most people wouldn't even have gone back outside!"

"You're welcome," the Chase girl replied, caught a bit off-guard. "Uh, you're all right, aren't you?"

"Yeah, peachy with a side of keen," Xander narrowed his eyes, suddenly sensing a crack in the bitchy exterior he had seen yesterday. And he was rather surprised to find a person with feelings under there. "So anything else can I do for you, Cor?"

"Oh for God's sake, mister, don't call me that! I mean, what's with that stupid nickname anyway?" the girl suddenly sounded annoyed again. "Because my name is Cordelia, pal! Can you say, 'Cor-de-lia'?" she enunciated slowly, as if talking to a special needs child.

"Sure I can. Can you say, 'bite me'?" Xander shot back, getting up from the table at last and scowling angrily at her.

Cordy honestly couldn't believe her ears. How dare this...this PEON talk to her like that? Where was the respect and near-worship that was her inalienable right as the wealthiest girl in Sunnydale? "Let me guess. Your parents adopted you from inside a big box containing baby howler monkeys, and never told you 'cause it would've hurt your delicate little male feelings?"

A shadow seemed to cross her opponent's face for a moment, as if a nasty thought had just occurred to him. Cordelia noticed it, of course. She was built to notice these things. "What? What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," Xander replied quickly, getting ahold of himself. "Cordelia, was there any real point to this little social call, or was it just so that we could start hurling abuse at one another?"

The young woman instantly collected herself and said, "Yeah. Now answer my original question, what happened last night in that alley?"

He thought about it for a few seconds. "Well, my opinion...you honestly don't want to know the truth, okay? Someone like you...simply couldn't handle it. Just chalk it all up to a learning experience about how dating people your own age is the only way to go, okay?" Xander replied a bit too smugly.

Well, Cordelia wasn't about to let that one just bounce off her, of course. "Right, and that means you just happen to think that YOU still have a chance with me? Ha, but I've got news for you Summers. You're beneath me!"

"Really? I'm beneath you? Well, I've got news for you too, Miss Chase. YOU'RE beneath ME!" Xander ranted almost directly into her face.

"Oh, that's it. You are obviously a complete and utter MORON!"

"And even though we just met yesterday, it's pretty obvious that you're the school BITCH!"

"OHHH! I HATE YOU!" Cordelia instantly screamed, losing all self-control.

"And I HATE YOU!" Xander yelled right back at her.

"Two-bit loser!"

"Stuck-up shrew!"

The boy and girl looked at each other for another second, their emotions boiling over – before grabbing each other and engaging in a mad, passionate kiss. It went on for several seconds, before the two crazy kids suddenly released themselves from one another's grasp.

Stunned, Cordy and Xander simply looked at each other in silent shock over what had just happened.

Jesse McNally, unseen on the upper level, stormed off into the stacks as Willow – who along with Jesse and Buffy had witnessed the entire screaming match and makeout session – began to go after him.

"No. I'll handle it," the Slayer whispered to her female friend as they also lost themselves amongst the bookshelves.

"But Buffy, I'm his best friend!" Willow protested.

"His best friend who couldn't BE more obviously in love with him, and somewhere deep inside is jumping up and down in glee over what's just happened," Buffy replied wryly.

The redhead somehow looked guilty, apprehensive and in agreement all at the same time. ( _Oh, I knew it. I just knew something like this was gonna happen, almost the moment Cordy started asking me about Xander in the corridor yesterday!_ )

Thus the Summers girl left Ms. Rosenberg behind and caught up with Jesse, who she found repeatedly kicking a row of books very angrily. "Hey. Uh, if I know Watcher types? Giles sees you doing that...he'll probably have a heart attack. Or try to carve out your heart with a spoon. Maybe even both," the Slayer remarked.

Jesse stopped kicking the books. "I'd like to be alone right now." The teenager certainly sounded pissed.

"Yeah, I get that. Probably don't want to talk to the sister of the guy who's just moved in on the girl you love, huh? Perfectly understandable. But what happened just now...well, it was basically only hormones. I know Xander better than anyone – and you've still got a shot with Cordelia, if you really want it-"

"How can you say that?" Jesse demanded moodily. "It's perfectly obvious she'd rather be with someone she hates than be with me!"

Buffy sighed. "Jesse, there was once a time when I was the Cordelia Chase of Hemery High. I went through boyfriends like...uh, well, there was this guy called Jeff, I was attracted to him for all the wrong reasons. And looking back, it's no wonder why Xander and I despised each other back then! But my point is, people can change. And if there's something meant to be between you and her...it'll happen, in its own good time."

"I just don't understand why," her companion said desperately. "I mean, they don't even like each other! What the hell does your brother have that I don't?"

Buffy turned away slightly. "The same thing I do."

"What's that?"

"A lousy life expectancy, thanks to the whole vampire thing," Buffy explained simply.

McNally had the decency to look apologetic. "Hey, I'm sorry, Buffy! I, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay," the Slayer said. "It is what it is, and me and my family just gotta deal with it. And anyway, despite the built-in expiration date, I still plan to live my life to the fullest. As in shop, sun-bathe and constantly pig out on full-caf cappuccinos!"

Jesse just stared at her, not sure if she was serious about that. And not sure if he wanted to find out, either.

TBC...


	8. The Calm Before The Storm

See Part I for disclaimer and details. And thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story, with an extra special thanks to those who do it regularly – you know who you are. Please, keep 'em coming! I'm still finding it hard to believe that this fanfic has gotten so many reviews, myself. Who knows, maybe it'll beat the record set by that Buffy/Angel/X-men Movie fanfic I wrote five years ago, called "This Changing World". But enough about all that – on with the story!

* * *

**Part VIII: The Calm Before The Storm**

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. Not long after lunchtime**

( _Americans. Bloody American teenagers! Why must they do such horrible things to their books?_ ) a very irate Giles thought to himself as he bitterly placed an overdue and somewhat tattered return onto his pile to be shelved.

As a boy named Warren left the library after handing in that particular book on robotics, the Watcher calmed himself down and went back to the study table again. The British guy then sipped his cup of tea before he opened up the volume he'd been looking at before, and started researching the Harvest once again.

It was times like this that Giles really missed England and the facilities of the British Museum. Well, he'd only been in the U.S. for something less than two months, so that was perfectly understandable. It was always hard to move away from all that you'd held familiar to become the Watcher to the Slayer, and especially THIS particular Chosen One at that.

Deep down, Giles suspected he'd been assigned the job only because of his family ties within the organization, and because the betting pool back home had it that this girl wouldn't last another year in service. And sometimes, Giles also suspected that a few people high up in the organization believed that he would get himself killed on the Hellmouth as well, and if so they would get rid of the annoyance with a tainted past whilst keeping their own hands as clean as a whistle.

( _Damned Council politics..._ ) Giles grumbled to himself absently. ( _Well, if nothing else, at least I'm going to be spared from being part of all that for a while!_ )

But then Rupert frowned as he recalled the first entry into his Watcher's diary that he'd made not long ago. 'The Slayer is not at all what I'd expected, upon meeting her and her twin brother who somehow receives the Slayer dreams and sensations in her stead. Both are wilful and occasionally insolent, and the boy's abuse of the English language in particular is such that I can only understand every other sentence.'

Giles took another sip of his tea, before starting on the book again. And suddenly, his attention was captured by a passage about the Harvest that was somewhat difficult to translate. Muttering to himself Rupert said, "'For they will gather and be gathered. From the Vessel pours life'. P-pours life?"

He absently turned the page back to the picture of Satan feeding power to a man. "'On the night of the crescent moon, the first past the solstice, it will come'."

Giles quickly got up and checked his calendar. ( _The winter solstice was just a couple of weeks ago, yes, yes, uh, the full moon was on Christmas Eve – and the current moon phase is..._ ) "Oh dear God. That's tonight!"

* * *

**Sunnydale High Computer Lab, Sunnydale. The same time**

Cordelia was uncharacteristically quiet, as she half-heartedly attempted to do her computer assignment. "Damn it! Why do we even have to write these stupid programs? Isn't that what nerds are for?" she suddenly growled to herself.

Harmony was seated right next to her, and the blonde girl just shrank away from the venom in her friend's tone. She knew something was wrong with Cordelia, but Ms. Kendall simply couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was.

And Ms. Chase wasn't the type to just ask, not when she was in this sort of dark mood.

Cordy's thoughts once again slid away from how to get the computer syntax to align with the rest of the program, and against her will focused on what had happened in the library a short while ago.

Try as she might, Cordelia didn't get it. WHY had that kiss happened? And why afterwards had she turned around and bolted out of the library as fast as she could go? She wasn't the type to do that sort of thing! Cordy had wondered more than once why she hadn't just slapped the little pervert then and there, and warned him never to try that again...

But the answer to that was, unfortunately, horribly simple. The feeling of Xander's lips on hers...the girl had never experienced anything quite like it before. That kiss had almost literally CRACKLED with intensity and passion, on both their parts.

( _I still don't get it. I've been kissing boys ever since I became a teenager! What the hell makes this one so special?_ ) Cordelia wondered.

The thought of it all just being a case of being tempted by something she couldn't have had occurred to the Chase girl. But Queen C had quickly dismissed that as a possibility. After all, when that hunk Darryl Epps had died six months ago due to a rock-climbing accident, sure she'd been hurt from the realization the football hero would never know what a prize she really was. But that was almost nothing, just a fancy that Cordelia was sure she'd outgrow in a few more months.

This, however...this was different.

While Darryl Epps had simply ignored her as an annoying freshman back then, here and now Xander Summers actively disliked her. And from what Cordy had seen, his juvenile sophomore attitude wasn't likely to improve anytime soon. So, why the hell did a part of her want that boy to think he was going to need CPR after she was done with him – once they ended up alone again?

( _I mean, just yesterday, I was wanting some cute senior as my new boyfriend! Oh...Xander's going to be poison on my social position around here if I do hook up with him. I'm already sure of that much!_ ) the young woman suddenly had an epiphany as her hearing suddenly picked up Harmony chatting with the boy sitting next to her.

"Are you going to the Bronze tonight?"

He shrugged. "It's Friday night, right? Plus, no cover charge. And it's not like there's any other cool place to go in this town, is there?"

"Guess not..." Harmony shrugged back. "It's just that last night, that FREAK Buffy Summers? She attacked me there with a wooden stick outside the bathroom!"

"Really?" Cordelia asked, injecting herself into the conversation.

Harmony at once included her in what they were saying. "Oh, yeah! I mean, could she be any weirder? I swear, that girl was just about to kill me!"

"What's her deal?" the other student asked as Cordelia looked at her friend, wondering if she was exaggerating just a bit.

"She's crazy. Probably runs in the family, too! I mean, did you hear the latest about her brother? Apparently he was involved in some sort of gang fight outside the Bronze last night! And that business with his old high school gym?" Harmony demanded.

"What about it?" Cordelia asked immediately, wincing at the 'gang fight' reference.

"After it happened, he left for Las Vegas! And then when Xander Summers eventually came back to Hemery High? Booted!" the blonde said excitedly.

"Man. He sounds like a psycho loony," the boy named Cody shook his head.

"No he isn't. I mean, you don't even know him," Willow said, looking up from her workstation. She had finished the assignment ages ago and was now surfing a newspaper archive web site, discovering to her horror just how long mysterious deaths had been occurring in her home town. But when she'd heard the 'psycho loony' crack Willow had felt the need to speak up.

"Excuse me? This is a private conversation!" Harmony lashed out at once, glad to have such an easy target for today's barbs. "Only people who actually matter in life are allowed to take part in it!"

Willow turned away, instantly averting her eyes to the ground. Harmony and Cordelia had constantly been picking on her for the last eight years, more or less. Thus, the redhead knew when to shut up and look the other way if she didn't want one or both of them to eventually reduce her to tears.

Luckily, Harmony was distracted when Cordelia asked her a question, "Harm, is this part supposed to be 'pattern run' or 'go to end'?"

The girl looked over at Cordelia's computer screen, her face a mask of bewildered concentration. "Uh...pattern run, I think."

"You think? Willow!" Cordelia instantly demanded, noticing that the girl had gone to get her printouts. "Get over here! I need somebody who actually knows what she's talking about!"

Ms. Rosenberg obediently came over and checked the program. "It's 'go to end'," she said carefully.

"I thought so!" Cordelia glared for a moment at her so-called best friend, who wisely decided to look elsewhere. She made a few final adjustments and sighed, "Finally, the nightmare ends!" The brunette girl then glanced at the brainy genius, "Save it for me, will you? I need to go to the bathroom!"

Willow just sighed as her fingers danced across the keyboard, and Cordelia got up and left. Harmony was distracted as Cordy barked out a trademark angry comment to a couple of students in her way, and as Willow began to depart the blonde asked her, "Hey, how did you save it? I didn't see!"

"Shift-Control-Deliver," the Jewish girl said simply, as she headed for the door herself.

"Uh, oh...yeah, there's shift, there's the ctrl button...but where the hell's deliver?" And unfortunately for her, Harmony spotted the 'Del' key. When she pressed it the screen went black, as her computer program was deleted.

Harmony's instant loud scream could easily be heard all the way down the corridor.

* * *

**The Girls' Bathroom, Sunnydale High. A few minutes later**

Cordelia came into the room, and headed straight for the mirror. As she got out her blush and brushed some onto her cheeks, the girl thought to herself, ( _Well, let's see, winter formal's coming up. I wonder, which guy should I bless with my presence to escort me to that?_ )

The girl started to contemplate the possibilities, as she put the blush away and took out her lip gloss. ( _There's Steve. Or maybe Mitch. I suppose Larry's also a possibility, even if his head's as thick as Daddy's private vault! Or maybe..._ )

But Cordelia instantly rejected that possibility, even before the thought had fully formed. ( _No. There is NO WAY I'm going to that dance with Alexander Summers!_ )

Suddenly the sound of a toilet being flushed was heard, and Buffy came out of one of the stalls as Cordy put away her lip gloss. "Uh, hi," the Slayer said in surprise as she went over to wash her hands. "I'm Buffy Summers-"

"I know. I'm Cordelia Chase," the young woman said bluntly.

"I know. Nice to be formally introduced, though," Buffy said simply as she turned off the taps and turned to face the taller brunette.

"Is there something else you wanna say?" the Chase girl asked upon noticing her stare.

"Well, I sorta have a question. Are you gonna be dating my brother now? 'Cause, y'know, I saw you guys fighting and kissing in the library earlier," the Chosen One asked with a small smirk that quickly vanished.

Cordelia was stunned. ( _She knows? Oh dear God, who else knows?_ ) "Who else knows about that?" the schoolgirl quickly demanded in no uncertain terms.

Buffy blinked. "Uh, I haven't told anyone if that's what you mean. But Jesse and Willow witnessed it all too, of course."

"OH MY GOD!" Cordelia cried out in horror, as visions of being the object of student ridicule danced through her head. "My life is over! RUINED!"

"What? Why?" Buffy looked honestly perplexed. "I mean, Jesse's so in love with you that you could be an axe murderer, and he'd still never mention it to anyone! And Willow's so scared of you, she...well, y'know. Say, what's the story with that? How come you and your friends are so mean to her?"

"None of your business," Cordelia said frostily, but with a definite edge of relief.

"Well, then, I'll tell you what is my business." Cordelia reflexively stepped back as Buffy's voice suddenly got a harder tone, "And that is looking after Xander's best interests. You hurt him, and I'll hurt you. Clear?"

"Oh, what, am I supposed to be scared of you now?" Cordy sneered at the shorter blonde.

"If you're smart? Yeah," Buffy said, nodding her head.

Ms. Chase looked at her new social enemy carefully. "Are you and Xander in some sort of gang? But how's that possible? I mean, you guys just moved here like yesterday!"

"We're not in a gang," the Summers girl snorted in annoyance. "Look, this is ridiculous, there's no point trying to beat around the bush. How much do you remember about what really happened in that alley last night?"

Cordelia backed off again at once. "What do you mean?"

Buffy shrugged minutely. "Xander and I have no secrets from each other, it's a twin thing. He told me what happened after I got to the hospital last night, and like I said we all heard you guys talking in the library today. SO, how much do you remember?"

Cordy tried to fight off the bad memories. "Those two in the alley, I dunno what the hell was wrong with their faces...and Xander was babbling something about vampires and Slayers? Look, deep down – is he nuts?"

"No!" Buffy exclaimed in annoyance. "Xander's just...no. Just forget about it, all of it. Xander was right, it's really none of your concern. Okay?"

"I...I'm not sure I can do that," the brunette girl said falteringly. "Explain it to me?"

Buffy hesitated. "Did, uh, did Xander happen to mention how he dreamed about you? Before he even met you yesterday?"

"Oh, come on!" Cordelia exclaimed in disbelief. "And you believed him? That's the oldest line in the-"

"It's true! He also dreamed about your two attackers and the Bronze, even though at the time he'd never seen any of them before in his life."

The brunette stared at the Slayer in disbelief. "So what are you telling me? That your brother's some sort of psychic?"

"Kinda sorta," Buffy said evasively, as Cordelia tried to get a read of what she was really thinking. "Look, I better go. Just...watch out from now on, okay? Especially after dark, and especially at the Bronze!"

* * *

**Study Hall, Sunnydale High. The same time**

Xander sat on the couch as he put his books down on the table. ( _Math sucks,_ ) he thought to himself grumpily. ( _And I swear, Miss Jackson's totally out to get me!_ )

The young man exhaled, thinking about his interview with Principal Flutie earlier today. ( _Gotta admit, I don't know how the heck he heard about what happened last night so quickly. What? Is all the major news around here strictly about Buffy and me?_ )

He eventually picked up a copy of the high school newspaper called the 'Sunnydale Sentinel' that had been laying on the table. The boy flipped through it, but then he frowned as he came across one particular page. ( _What the hell-? Since when does a school paper have an obituary section?_ )

Xander put down the newspaper, and tried to think objectively about all that had happened lately.

It was times like this the young man remembered that he was still just a kid in spite of all the drastic changes in his life since last year. After the dreams had started, and he'd seen vampires like Lothos, Amilyn and Benny kill and mutilate young girls with a genuine smile on their faces, Xander had thought he'd grown up fast. Seen the worst the world had to offer, and emerged from it battered but unbowed.

But this whole business now with the Harvest, and what had happened last night and today with Cordelia Chase...well, Xander just wished that his father or Merrick was here so that he had another guy to discuss things with.

And at that point, of course, his sister's new friend Jesse came up to where Xander was sitting and said in no uncertain terms, "I need to talk to you. In private!"

Getting a very weird vibe off of this guy he'd just met last night, Xander simply nodded and followed him into an empty classroom. "Shut the door!" Jesse demanded.

As soon as he had done that Xander turned around – only to find Jesse's fist flying towards his face. "And stay away from Cordelia!"

Nearly a year of training by Merrick made the reflex almost automatic. Xander ducked under the blow, kicked his opponent in the right kneecap, and then grabbed the offending arm and wrenched it around Jesse's back.

"AGGGHHH! That hurts, you son of a bitch!" McNally screamed in pain and anger. Fortunately, the closed door prevented anyone outside from hearing him.

"You insult my mother like that again, and I'll break it in half! Now what's your problem, pal?" Xander demanded angrily.

"Lemme go!"

"Only if you give me your word that we'll talk, and not fight. I can't afford to get expelled or suspended here. So how about it?"

The agony was so bad that Jesse was in no position to do anything but nod helplessly. As Xander released him, the boy hobbled a short distance away as he painfully massaged his knee. ( _You fucking bastard!_ )

"Okay. You mentioned something about Cordelia?" young Mr. Summers asked simply.

Jesse glared again. "How the hell did you do that to me, you asshole?"

Xander shrugged, ignoring the personal insult. "I've been trained to help fight things that are at least four times stronger than the average guy on the street for months now. Guess some of it's stuck, especially against a human."

Jesse stared as he suddenly contemplated the possibilities. "You think Giles will teach me as well, if I asked nicely?"

"Couldn't hurt to try. Now spill, what exactly did I do that got ya so mad just now?"

"You have to ask? YOU KISSED CORDELIA!" McNally ranted at his perceived competition for the girl's affections.

"How did you know about that?" Xander asked in confusion.

"Well, I saw you guys in the library then, going at it-"

Xander's eyes narrowed as he interrupted, "So Cordelia was right last night, you ARE her stalker?"

"NO!" Jesse denied it vehemently. But he quickly calmed down a little. "Uh...Wills, Buffy and I just happened to be upstairs, when...what happened, happened."

"I see," Xander said thoughtfully as he digested the implications of that. "So then, mind explaining how...Cordelia and me...is any of your business?"

"I love her!" Jesse said hotly, as the previous anger returned with a vengeance.

"I don't doubt it. But hey, I think we both know how she feels about you. Last night, that girl made it pretty damn clear in front of everybody. So again, how is what happened today in the library any of your business?"

"Do you love Cordy?" Jesse tried hard not to break his promise and attempt to punch this guy's lights out, even as his heart sagged at the bitter truth in Xander's words.

"Merciful Zeus, I just met her yesterday! And we started annoying each other from almost the very first moment. What do you think?" Xander said in exasperation.

"Uh, well...good! So, Xander, you're not planning to make her your girlfriend, right? What happened with you guys today was just a freak occurrence?" Jesse asked with a look of pure hope in his eyes.

The other boy rolled his eyes. "Great googley-moogley, Jesse, I don't know! I haven't even talked to her about anything that's happened between us yet. But you want my opinion? You could do better than her."

"How can you say that? She's Cordelia, man!" Jesse exclaimed in shock. "Haven't you got eyes? I mean, how could I possibly settle for anything less than perfection?"

Xander sighed, briefly thinking about his own romantic disasters in the past. He'd taken more than a few girls out to dinner and a movie, so to speak, but before the girl named Nicole Bobbitson – God rest her soul – there had never been anyone who hadn't hurt him one way or another.

"Look, Jesse, I'm not planning to beg Cor to accept me as her new boyfriend. On the other hand, I'm not going to actively avoid her if she comes looking for me either, comprende? Whatever happens, whatever Cordelia decides to do – that's totally up to her," Xander tried to explain his feelings.

"So, what exactly are you saying? 'May the best man win' type scenario?" Jesse frowned again.

Xander shrugged, "I guess."

Mr. McNally just stormed out of the room after glaring at his counterpart, still hobbling a little as he departed. Xander simply sighed once more at all the problems people created for themselves like this.

Looking at it objectively it was a damned shame about how these two young men, who had previously been destined to be as close as brothers, were now estranged adversaries – and all because of a woman...

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. The same time**

Giles looked up as Willow entered the library. "Buffy?"

"No, it's me," the redhead replied as she walked over to the table where Giles was researching.

"Oh, Willow. Did, did you find anything of interest?" the librarian asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"Yeah. I think, maybe...I surfed through the old newspapers, all the way back to around the time of that big earthquake back in '37? And for several months before that, there was this big rash of murders!" She handed him her printouts when the Watcher held out his hands for them.

"Great!" Giles enthused before he got a look at the papers. "Well, I mean, well, not, not 'great' in a good way, uh, um, uh, go on?"

Willow said simply, "Well, they sounded like the kind of stuff you were looking for." She flipped through the pages that Giles had laid aside. "Throats, blood..."

Giles could easily see her squeamish expression. He sighed, "It's all coming together. I rather wish it weren't."

"What do you mean?"

"The Harvest. It's tonight, I'm afraid."

"WHAT?" Willow screeched out, suddenly terrified. And so the countdown to the Master's ascension truly began.

TBC...


	9. Harvest Time

See Part I for disclaimer and details. Thanks heaps, everyone who has reviewed. Well, sorry to have to say it, but this one's coming to an end; it's just this chapter and one more to go. Time to move on, in more ways than one! Hope you enjoy the penultimate chapter.

* * *

**Part IX: Harvest Time **

**The underground prison of the Master, Sunnydale. Not long before sunset**

All the vampires were gathered for the big occasion.

In the darkness lit only by torches Darla approached the Master and knelt before him. Angelus and Drusilla, only a short distance away, watched as the ritual for the Harvest began; one with barely concealed semi-boredom, but the other with great interest.

The Master offered his hand to his childe. Darla took it and kissed it. She then released him and the Master turned his arm over, to offer her the underside of his wrist. ( _Let us proceed quickly now, my dear..._ )

Darla opened the cuff of the Master's sleeve and pulled it back. She took his hand again, sank her fangs into the wrist and drank deeply of the blood. Finally she released her sire's hand and the Master stepped back.

"My blood is your blood. My soul is your soul," Heinrich Nest intoned solemnly.

"My body is your instrument," Darla said simply.

The Master stepped over to the female vamp and began to draw a three-pointed star on her forehead with the blood still flowing from his wrist. "On this...most hallowed night...we are as one. Darla is the Vessel!"

"Big surprise," Angelus whispered nastily, but out of earshot even for vampire hearing.

Dru just watched in rapture as the Master continued. "Every soul the Vessel takes will feed me. And their souls will grant me the strength to free myself. Tonight I shall walk the Earth, and the stars themselves will hide!"

Angelus just rolled his eyes. ( _And they used to call ME a big showman..._ )

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. The same time**

It was the beginning of what would eventually become a legendary age: the first ever complete Scooby gang meeting.

Willow and Jesse were looking through Giles' volumes, when they heard the door open and looked around to see Xander and Buffy come in.

Now, the McNally boy had made a promise to Willow to behave himself around Xander. On account of the redhead had been mortified to hear what he'd done, and threatened to end their friendship if that was the kind of person he was now. It had all basically been a bluff, of course, but the sight of Willow's Resolve Face had an almost magical hold over Jesse and he had acceded to her demands.

"So, Giles! What's new about the whole Harvest thing?" the Slayer asked as the twins came over to the table.

Rupert said simply, "If it succeeds in happening, tonight might very well be the end of the world!"

Xander stared at the Watcher. "And for those of us in the audience going, 'huh'?"

"Well, this is what we know so far. Some 60 years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire calling himself the Master came here to Sunnydale, and not just to feed," Giles got into lecture mode again.

"Lemme guess. He came 'cause this town's a mystical who's-it?" Buffy asked.

"Yes. The Spanish who first settled here called it 'la Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, the mouth of Hell, or, or 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next. Apparently, this vampire hoped to open it."

Buffy said at once, "And bring the demons back?"

Xander nodded, "End of the world."

Willow added excitedly, "But he blew it! Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town back then, a-and him, too."

Giles nodded. "You see, opening dimensional portals is a tricky business. Odds are he got himself stuck, rather like a, uh, cork in a bottle."

Jesse asked, "And this Harvest thing is supposed to get him out?"

"It comes once a century, on this night. The Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free and open the portal fully. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol," Giles said to all of the teenagers as he drew a three-pointed star on the whiteboard, the same thing Nest had drawn on Darla's forehead.

Buffy was a practical girl and thus simply asked, "So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol and no Harvest?"

"Simply put, yes," the Council's field man replied.

Buffy nodded once. "Okay! Well. Any idea where this little get-together is gonna be held?"

"Well, there, there are a number of possibilities-" Rupert started to say.

"They'll be going to the Bronze," Jesse interrupted.

Willow looked at her crush. "Are you sure?"

Jesse looked certain. "Come on. All those tasty young morsels hanging out there, spread out all over the place? Complete no-brainer!"

Giles grabbed his coat. "Then we should get over there and check it out. If you're wrong, Xander can always try to sense wherever else they may be congregating. But the sun will be down before long, and we haven't much time."

Buffy and Xander shared a brief glance. "We just gotta make a quick stop at home first. It shouldn't take long-" the Slayer started to say.

"What for?" Giles demanded.

"Supplies," Xander answered simply.

* * *

**The Bronze, Sunnydale. Not long after sunset **

Cordelia was present with her entourage at the club, and was taking great comfort in knowing that things were FINALLY back to normal. Which happened to mean that she and her followers had just spent the last 15 minutes talking about lipstick.

But then outside the Bronze, the vampires arrived.

Angelus was in the lead, with Dru and Darla right behind him. An entire horde of the fang faces appeared behind them in support. "So now it begins," Darla murmured, a look of unholy anticipation on her face.

Angelus suppressed an annoyed snort. But he didn't look back as his attention was focused on the bouncer at the door, who said, "Okay, let's see some ID!"

Some of the vampires went to barge past him. "Hey! Nobody gets inside until I get some sorta-"

Angelus grabbed him by the throat, cutting off the doorman's voice. "Everyone inside!"

Darla strode past like an undead queen amongst peasants, as Dru eagerly followed her so-called 'grandmother'. The rest of the minions followed suit as Angelus dragged the bouncer inside and one of the undead soldiers locked the front door behind him.

Darla made her way to the front stage. One of the lesser vamps then cut the power and the club was plunged into darkness. "Ladies and gentlemen! There's no cause for alarm," the Vessel said, as a spotlight shone down on her.

"I thought there wasn't any band tonight?" Cordelia asked her second-in-command.

"That's what I heard too!" Harmony quickly agreed.

Then as everyone saw Darla's game face, the female vamp went on, "Actually, there is. It just won't do any of you any good!"

Cordelia instantly screamed like a girl. ( _Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! It's happening all over again!_ ) She quickly and instinctively looked all around for Xander, or even Buffy, but to her dismay only saw the same kind of nightmarish monsters all over the place. ( _Dear Lord, if you let me survive this, I swear I'll be a good person for the rest of my life! Well, as long as I don't have to mingle with the ugly and undeserving, of course-_ )

Angelus dragged the doorman over to his sire, who was staring at the Happy Meal on legs hungrily. "This is a glorious night! Unfortunately for you, it's also the last one that you'll ever see."

"What do you mean? What do you guys want? You want money? Oh man, lady, what's wrong with your face?" the bouncer demanded.

Darla wasted no more time on pointless chatter. She grabbed the mortal and drank deeply, before letting the corpse fall to the floor. Elsewhere, the Master felt it through their link and demanded of the Vessel, "More!"

Outside the Bronze, the good guys finally arrived. Joyce Summers was present as well, part of the group and ready to kick some vampire ass. Well, since it was either that or both Buffy and Xander would have been grounded till they were legal adults.

The Slayer tried the door. "It's locked!"

"We're too late!" Giles hissed in frustration.

"Can you break it down?" Jesse asked Buffy.

She instantly shook her head. "No way, not without them hearing us coming from a mile away! Look, you guys head around and try the back, I'll find my own way in."

"Be careful!" Joyce cautioned her daughter.

"Same here," Xander shared a meaningful glance with his other half that Buffy acknowledged with a quick nod.

Inside the club, Darla was feeding on one of the Cordettes that another of her vamps had brought to her. She could hear the Master in her mind shouting, "More! More!"

Just then, Angelus spotted his prize. "Well, well, well. If it isn't little Miss Motormouth!"

He headed right for her. As soon as she spotted him approaching, Cordelia tried to run, but it was pointless as the bloodsuckers had her surrounded. "Get away from me!" the Chase girl yelled at the soulless vampire, showing a bit of spunk in her most desperate hour.

"Sorry, little girl. But I'm afraid that's not an option," the Scourge of Europe chuckled, before he grabbed her and started heading for Darla.

Suddenly, Drusilla – who had just been hanging around, watching the show – started to shake and shiver. "No...no..."

"What is it, Dru?" Angelus asked his childe, pausing as he did so.

"My kitten, he's close by..."

"Good!" the male vamp looked ecstatic. "I'll be able to take care of him too."

"I CAN FEEL THE MASTER'S STRENGTH GROWING!" Darla screamed in exultation, just as Buffy climbed into the club through an upstairs window. "I can feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer to release! Angelus! Bring me another!"

The male vampire in question began to obey, as Buffy saw Darla and said to herself, "The Vessel..."

The former Angel ignored Drusilla's freaked look; for as noted earlier, thanks to Whistler's work, Dru couldn't 'see' Buffy. But at this range, she could feel the Slayer's presence close by. Angelus just brought the struggling Cordelia to Darla and said cheerfully, "How about this one?"

"Perfect!"

Just then, Buffy engaged in a brief battle with a vampire on guard duty before kicking him down to the floor from the upstairs level. The Slayer came to the railing as Darla looked up at her, and the good guy said, "Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?"

"You!" hissed Darla.

"Yep, little old me. Come on, Miss Crow's Feet Face, you didn't really think I'd miss all this – did you?"

"I hoped you'd come. I really did," the centuries-old vampire rapped out in reply, anticipating the thrill of a savage battle.

Buffy said cheerfully, "Be right down!" just before she jumped over the railing to the ground floor of the Bronze. And while everyone was distracted, Cordelia kicked Angelus in the shin and managed to run for it.

"Go after her, you fool!" Darla hissed at her childe, as she stalked towards Buffy. Her comment though did not exactly endear her to Angelus in any way, shape or form.

At the back of the Bronze Willow, Jesse, Xander, Giles and Joyce finally managed to break into the nightclub. Elsewhere, Dru instantly felt it. And as the Vessel and the Slayer started to fight the mad seer got another glimpse of the uncertain future.

"Daddy! Oh, no..."

The white hats started to move some of the captive humans out of the club. "Come on! Let's go, let's go!" Jesse told them all, as he attempted to hustle the patrons out of the establishment.

Giles whispered as the people started to go out the back door, "Hurry up! Come on! Through this door! Come on! This way!"

In the meantime, Angelus finally caught up with Cordelia. "To hell with the Master – you're mine, you little bitch!" he snarled at Miss Chase. "And I'm really going to enjoy drinking you!"

( _Okay! Okay! I believe in vampires! I believe in vampires!_ ) Cordelia begged for help to somebody upstairs. ( _Just as long as someone helps me right NOW_! )

"Haven't we been here before?" came a masculine voice from out of the darkness.

( _XANDER!_ ) Cordelia wanted to scream for joy. ( _It's Psychic Boy! You came for me? Oh God, I think I love you!_ )

Angelus just turned around in annoyance. "You again?"

Xander pointed a crossbow bolt right at his heart. "Bet your undead ass, Angelus."

Back in the main room, Buffy and Darla continued to fight. The Slayer managed to land a vicious backhand punch into her enemy's face, sending her tumbling away. Then seeing a vamp about to feed on one of the crowd, Buffy grabbed a cymbal from the drum set next to her and threw it like a Frisbee. "Heads up!"

Decapitated, the undead guy dusted at once. Buffy just chuckled a little at her own joke, before Darla came at her again and the fight was resumed.

Elsewhere, Giles and Willow were still guiding people out. "One at a time! Quickly, quickly!" the Watcher tried to hurry things along.

"We're gonna have to open the front door too. This is taking too long, isn't it?" the redhead asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so, damn it..."

Not far away, Jesse and Joyce were suddenly faced by Drusilla, who somehow appeared in front of them. "You're not supposed to be 'ere," the insane undead murmured in her London accent, staring at Joyce. Then she looked at Jesse, "And you're supposed to be one of us now..."

"What are you talking about?" Joyce asked as she began to back away, instinctively pulling Jesse behind her.

"Bad mummy! No tea and cakes for you today. The young ladies of the manor will be most upset," Drusilla babbled angrily, with a rather violent mood swing. "And now the kitten will be, too!"

"What's she talkin' about?" Jesse asked in confusion. To their surprise though, Dru just turned around and ran for it.

Angelus never even noticed Drusilla's arrival a few seconds later, being focused completely on Xander. "You think your little stick can hurt ME, boy?"

"That's exactly what Lothos said in LA, not long ago. Just before my sister staked him!" Xander spat back, wondering how much longer their Mexican standoff would last.

"Ah...so, your sister's the Slayer? That cute little blonde thing? Funny. I don't see the resemblance," Angelus snarked back.

"Oh, that's it. Xander, DO something!" Cordelia yelled out, annoyance finally winning out over terror and gratitude.

Just then Dru grabbed her sire's arm, pulling him away and letting Cordelia fall to the floor. "Daddy! We 'ave to go! Grandmother won't win against the wicked Slayer!"

Xander instantly fired off a shot, but with inhumanly sharp reflexes Angelus caught the wooden arrow. "Another time, boy!" he managed to shout, before the two vamps disappeared with supernatural speed – the older bloodsucker implicitly trusting in Drusilla's words. ( _Sorry, Darla. But you made your own bed, so lie in it!_ )

Xander raced off, eager to find Buffy as Willow arrived on the scene to help Cordy up and out of the club. On the dance floor, Buffy and Darla continued their deadly duel. All of a sudden Darla managed to get on top of the female Champion, and her fangs lunged for Buffy's throat.

Just as a stake in the back slammed home into her heart.

As Darla exploded into ashes thanks to Xander's excellent timing, in his prison the Master – who had been forcefully trying to break free of his mystical confines – felt her death through their bond.

"Noooooooo! Noooooooo!" he screamed, pounding impotently at the magical walls still imprisoning him.

Back at the Bronze, Xander helped Buffy up. "Thanks," the Chosen One said simply. And a lifetime of familial love and devotion could be heard in just that one word.

"Anytime," Xander silently returned her feelings.

Buffy Summers then glared at the few vampires in front of her. And like cowardly scum they decided to run for it. Not long afterwards, when all the undead were gone, outside the club Whistler whistled. "Well, I'll be. They actually did it!" He walked off as the weary combatants gathered together within the Bronze.

"Is it over?" Joyce asked fearfully, looking at the wreckage all around her thanks to the fight her daughter had just participated in.

"For now, I suspect so," Giles answered her wearily.

"Uh, did we win?" Willow asked timidly.

"Well, we're all still alive, so I'd give us a definite 'I think so'," Xander rubbed his head as the last nearby vampire presence disappeared from his inner radar.

"And we averted the apocalypse. I'd give us points for that too!" Buffy added in her own two cents.

Jesse looked resigned more than anything else. "One thing's for sure. Nothing's ever gonna be the same after this."

* * *

**City Hall, Sunnydale. A short while later **

Mayor Richard Wilkins chuckled out loud when Deputy Mayor Allan Finch finished his report over tonight's happenings. "Well. Gosh! That little girl sure seems like something, doesn't she? Quite the little firecracker. Yesireee, an absolute pistol!"

"What are your orders, sir?" Allan asked at once, showing no sign of his nervousness. "Should I arrange a, an accident for her?"

"Oh, no, no, just leave the Slayer and her family alone for now. That'll be all, Allan, thank you."

As Finch nodded and left the room, Wilkins got up from behind his desk to practice his putting skills. And once again he congratulated himself on ordering the school board to accept the Slayer's brother despite that little fracas in LA, in order for his Chosen sibling to come here as well.

( _Yes, Miss Summers, I'm really looking forward to a very profitable working relationship between the two of us, indeed I am! Well, for the next two and a half years anyway..._ )

* * *

**The underground prison of the Master, Sunnydale. Not long before sunrise**

"You failed me."

The Master's tone was not a nice one, as he stared at Angelus. "Darla was my favorite, for nearly 400 years. And you failed her as well."

Angelus glanced around and saw that the Master's chambers were a wreck. Obviously, the old geezer had had a major temper tantrum when the Vessel had become history. It was easier to think of Darla that way, oddly enough, as Angelus was not without his own grief now when it came to his lost sire.

"Well? Anything to say?" Heinrich Nest requested silkily, but his new tone immediately put the Scourge on his guard.

"Not really. Apart from the Slayer fought better than Darla, and beat her. What else is there to say?"

"How YOU survived this...debacle, for one thing," the Master suddenly snarled, looking ready to tear his grandchilde's heart out.

"My own secret weapon since 1860, of course. NOW, DRU!"

Many things then seemed to happen very quickly.

A vampire guard named Colin was staked in the back and dusted as Dru came forward.

Angelus dived out past the borders of the mystical barrier imprisoning the Master, distracting the other vampire for a few seconds.

Drusilla threw a Molotov cocktail at her great-grandsire, who at the last moment managed to deflect it. But when it impacted against the wall, the entire chamber seemed to go up in flames.

"NOOOOOO!" the Master screamed, as the fire spread everywhere. But there was nowhere to run, and soon there was nothing but the remains of a skeleton that Angelus smashed to pieces once the blaze had exhausted itself.

"Well, Drusilla," Angelus then said cheerfully, but sporting a lascivious grin. "I feel like celebrating! What do you think?"

"You've been a very bad Daddy...oh, yes please, whatever my Angel wants!"

"Don't call me that!" Angelus instantly scowled, annoyed at the reference to his ensouled alter ego even after all these years.

But the insane vampiress seemingly paid no attention to him. And as her sire began to rip off her clothes, Drusilla simply went away to her own happy place...and began to dream of her kitten, and the day he would come to her...

To Be Concluded…


	10. Aftermath

See Part I for disclaimer and details. So here we are, finally, at the end. Tout fini. Or is it? Either way, I just wanna thank everyone who's read this story and sent me any sort of feedback and reviews. As they say in Mandarin, xie xie! Not only have so many done so much for so few (well, really, only me), the reviews inspire the author to write, and to write well is truly God's gift. Farewell and see you on the flipside!

* * *

**Part X: Aftermath**

**Sunnydale High, Sunnydale. Two days later**

Janna of the Kalderash gypsy clan felt somewhat nervous. Because she had arrived here under the name of "Jenny Calendar" for a job interview as a teacher in Computer Science. Since the previous one at Sunnydale High had recently ended up just another Hellmouth statistic.

Now, the funny thing about gypsies is that they never forgive and most definitely never forget. When Angelus had freed himself of the soul curse back in 1978, the member of the tribe assigned to discreetly watch the vampire had instantly reported the news back to the elders. Who had become furious that their vengeance had been thwarted that way, which was hardly surprising.

Unfortunately, though, there was nothing they could do. As by that point the knowledge of how to perform the ensouling magicks had been lost, and the gypsies had been unable to curse the vampiric enemy that way again however much they'd wanted to.

But little Janna had been a smart girl and her Uncle Enyos had known it. He had sponsored her training from when she was a child, sending her all over the world. The man eventually even allowed his niece to consort with the gaje if that would increase her knowledge base.

Because she was to be his weapon, his big gun. Enyos believed that if anyone could figure out how to do the soul curse again, and get around the happiness clause somehow, it was his Janna.

Thanks to one of their sources within the Council, the clan had now learned that Angelus had been spotted on the California Hellmouth. Hopefully he would stay a while, and with any luck he would not escape the revenge of the Kalderash a second time.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Quad, Sunnydale. The same time**

It was just another Monday morning as far as nearly all the student body was concerned. Get up, go to school, listen to the teachers and pretend to be interested. And Jesse McNally, for one, couldn't believe it.

"What exactly were you expecting?" the blonde Slayer asked her new sidekick, as they walked along.

"I don't know – something! I mean, the walking dead were in full view of everybody at the Bronze a few nights ago. We should at least have had Principal Flutie giving us some sort of official explanation over the loudspeaker!" Jesse semi-ranted.

As Giles and Willow joined the pair, the Watcher said with a small shrug, "As you learned with your, um, other classmates last Friday, people do have this tendency to rationalize what they can and to forget what they can't. It's just human nature to do so, I suppose."

The Rosenberg girl, who had heard Harmony blabbing this morning about rival gangs and that Buffy was probably part of that entire scene, shook her head. "Well, I'll never forget it, none of it..." Then she looked around. "Uh, Buffy, where's Xander?"

The Slayer frowned. "I don't know, he ditched me as soon as Dad drove us to school this morning."

"Well, the guy's gotta be around someplace," Jesse shrugged. "Maybe he's gone off somewhere to practice his vamp detection skills?"

"I rather doubt that there are any members of the undead on campus right now. Still, it's good practice for next time-" Giles started to say.

"NEXT TIME?" Jesse, Willow and Buffy asked at once.

"Of course," Giles blinked. "And it's not just vampires we need worry about, you know. The next threat we face m-may be something quite different."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "I can hardly wait!"

Rupert tried to stress the importance of the situation to these young, impressionable minds. "We're at the center of a mystical convergence here, remember. We may, in fact, be all that stands between the Earth and its total destruction."

The teenage Slayer couldn't help it, she just had to say, "Well, I gotta look on the bright side on things. Like, maybe I can be the one who gets kicked out of school this time, instead of Xander!"

"Burning down a gym is so passé, though. 'Been there, done that' sorta territory," Jesse said.

"Not to mention kinda dangerous," Willow pointed out. "Maybe you could be rude to the vice-principal?"

The conversation proceeded along its predestined course, with Giles eventually muttering, "The Earth is doomed!" and heading for his library after the three teenagers had left him.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library, Sunnydale. The same time**

Unbeknownst to the Watcher, though, Xander was already there in the private sanctum, wanting some alone time to think.

( _I've been watching over you and your other half here – ever since before you two were born._ )

( _See, my problem is...the guy who was originally supposed to fill you in and stand guard over you, sweetcheeks? He couldn't make it to the party, at least not the way he was supposed to. That's why Big Brother over there got drafted for this gig._ )

( _The man in the hat, so-so naughty he was...before you were born, even. Cuckoo in the nest, you are! I can see it, kitten, you're not who you would 'ave been._ )

( _So, your sister's the Slayer? That cute little blonde thing? Funny. I don't see the resemblance._ )

The words swirled around in his head, having led Xander down a path he REALLY hadn't wanted to travel. But 'the one who sees' couldn't escape his own thoughts. And so, during the weekend he had carefully examined all the family photographs he could get his hands on. To his ever-increasing horror, in the end Xander had found the evidence stacked against him. In more ways than one.

"Hi, kid. I heard you've been wanting to find me?"

The young man instantly leapt to his feet, and found himself facing the balance demon he'd been itching to talk to for a few days now. Not to mention try to throttle if he got the opportunity.

"What have you done to me?" Xander hissed out, slowly advancing forward.

"I'm good, thanks for asking. Geez! Don't they teach you kids any manners anymore?" Whistler wanted to know, even as he backed up at once.

"Who am I, Whis?" Xander demanded.

"You wanna clarify that a little?" Whistler asked, again annoyed at the nickname.

"Fine. I'm not an idiot, you know. What you said, what Drusilla said, hell – even what that prick Angelus said! I went through the family album very carefully, and it's obvious I look nothing like my parents or my sister. Not to mention all the rest of the relatives! So I repeat, who am I? And what have you done to me?"

Whistler sighed. "Let me put it this way, kid. You remember the night of the Hemery High dance, you had to sacrifice those people who wouldn't leave that gym? Same principle applies, but on a bigger scale. I had to do what I had to do. If I hadn't? The Slayer and quite a few other people woulda died on Friday night. And old bat nose woulda turned this town into a human blood factory!"

"Who? And what does that really mean?" Xander demanded, calming down somewhat as he recalled staking Darla at the Bronze, and almost shivering at the thought of what would have happened if he hadn't been there to help Buffy.

"Oldest vamp around named the Master, Watcher guy mentioned him not long ago. And like I said to you last week, you got drafted for all this. Same as your little sweetheart of a sister! So, my advice, just make the best of your situation. 'Cause we all are what we are, kid. And we all do what we gotta do. It's just that me, I'm no hero. That's you guys' department!"

"You don't even have anything worthwhile to say, do you? Just cryptic bullshit to try to confuse the hell out of me. Well, listen up demon. Because I'm NOT going to let this go. And eventually I WILL find out what you did, somehow!"

"Too bad then for that luscious broad you got caught in a liplock with a few days ago!" Whistler instantly knew that he'd gone for a very low blow with that one.

But needs must as the devil drives. Plus he knew Xander had an upcoming role to play, and didn't want the boy distracted with...trivialities. ( _Heck, kid, I just wish I could tell you how I actually did you a favor. Even if Jessica Harris did end up a vamp that you almost encountered at the Harvest that night!_ )

"You mean Cordelia? And what's that supposed to mean, Whis?" Xander asked in response to Whistler's statement.

"Way I see it, that particular princess isn't gonna die the way she was supposed to one day. On account of the Powers That Be have cleaned house a lot over the last two decades. But funny thing how her old man has been diddling the IRS for the last ten years, don't ya think? And when he eventually gets busted for that? I figure our girl will swallow a ton of pills one night rather than face reality. A reality where the only thing she'll have to her name is a Blockbuster membership card! On account of the one thing rich folks can't handle is becoming poor folks, you know? Unless of course..."

"Unless of course, what?" Xander snarled, somewhat unsettled by this news.

"YOU take the time and effort to become her friend, rather than pursue that...other endeavour. And by the way, if you two were to end up as more than just friends? So much the better!"

Xander scowled over the way-too-obvious attempt at manipulation. "Why me? I mean, Jesse already loves Cordelia with all his heart, so why not pick HIM for all that?"

The balance demon said simply, "Because that guy's a nice enough kid, but they were never destined to be together that way. Like it or not you're now her best bet, pal. After all, you DID show up and try to save that cutie like a genuine white knight the other evening, didn't you? No. It's you and her, you're the only real chance she's got to survive."

"So why are you so invested in Cordelia staying alive, anyway?" Xander ignored the echo of Angelus's mocking phrase as best he could.

Whistler blew out a deep breath, thinking about what he'd been told Drusilla was now destined to accomplish. "Sorry, can't tell you. Like you yourself said recently: you honestly don't want to know the truth, okay? Someone like you...simply couldn't handle it."

It was obvious Xander didn't like hearing his own words parroted back at him. Then Giles FINALLY came into the library and Whistler vanished from view, the second the boy's eyes turned away. And the worst part was there was nothing the youth could do about that, what with the balance demon's annoying tendency to show up only when the Powers That Be were in favor of that occurrence.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Corridor, Sunnydale. A short while later**

Xander had left the library, and after walking around for a few minutes found Cordelia in one of the hallways. But unfortunately she was surrounded by her Cordettes, and since the young man wanted privacy for their upcoming conversation...

Eventually, Cordy twigged onto the fact that the new boy was both staring at her and wanting a private meeting. And thus she carefully slid away to hide in the closest private place she could find.

One of the school's utility closets.

Xander waited a few minutes to make sure no one was watching, and then carefully followed her in. As he closed the door, Cordelia yanked on the light string to dissipate the total darkness. "You ever hear of the word 'subtlety', Summers? Geez! I think pretty much everyone and their boyfriend noticed you staring at me like that, just now. And as if that's what my reputation needs at the moment!"

( _What have I gotten myself into? I was right that first moment we spoke at the Bronze last week, I should be getting paid for this!_ ) Xander shook his head. But all he said was, "You okay after everything that happened at the Bronze on Friday night?"

Cordelia looked nervous. "What do you mean? I thought that was just...I didn't..."

But from the look on Xander's face it was obvious he wasn't buying it. Finally Cordelia conceded, "Yeah, I'm fine, didn't get bitten or anything. And y'know, all that was EXACTLY what I wanted to think about over the weekend! Along with whether my future husband will be a crazy demented chainsaw murderer, of course!"

Again, Xander said nothing, he just kept staring at his companion. Finally Ms. Chase grew tired of the silence and demanded, "WELL?"

"Well, what?"

"You came here to give me an explanation about what really happened that night, didn't you?" Cordelia demanded. "So let's hear it! Let's start with how the hell vampires are real, and why they're living in Sunnydale!"

Xander had a question of his own, though. "There'll be plenty of time for that later. What I want to know right now is, how important is money to you?"

Cordelia was a bit thrown by that query. "What do you mean?"

"Say that for some reason you had to live poor, your family lost all its money. Could you handle that?"

Cordelia instantly went as white as a sheet. "Oh my God! You, you had one of those psychic visions or whatever about THAT happening?"

"No," Xander admitted with a quick smile that instantly vanished. "This isn't like the prophetic warning I had of you getting killed by Angelus. The thing is, I got paid a visit today by..." For a moment Xander hesitated, "uh...my godfather, I guess you could call him. And he told me that your dad's been cheating on his taxes for the past ten years, and eventually he's gonna get caught. I mean, the IRS is gonna throw the book at him. So, if it's true and your family ends up losing everything...I was just wondering how well you would cope with that?"

The Chase girl backed away from him in horror. ( _Oh my God, no. That, that can't be true, it just CAN'T be! But if it is...oh, no..._ )

The cold hard truth was that Cordelia was unashamed to admit how much she liked money. She liked the status and power it brought her; and more importantly, the things it also let her buy. Clothes and shoes, especially. As far as this teenage girl was concerned Cordelia Chase hadn't been born to live in poverty, and the concept of losing the money, the house, the cars, the villa in Tuscany, even her trust fund...no. All that was NOT an option!

( _I'll need to talk to the family accountant. And maybe sneak a look at Daddy's last few tax returns? Shouldn't be too hard, anyway. That big dummy with the bow tie fetish obviously has a thing for me, from what I saw last time he was over at the house! And if it's all true...uh, well..._ )

Various scenarios ran through Cordelia's 16-year-old mind. Retrieving money currently in various offshore accounts, cashing in some of the credit available on her charge cards, maybe even selling some of her jewelry. But damn it, whatever she scrounged together from using those sorts of tricks wouldn't last long, given her lifestyle, and since she was still underage...

"Cordelia?" Xander asked, getting tired of the silence between them.

"Yeah?" Cordy replied absently. Still thinking about options on how to save the Chase family fortune if worst came to worst, not surprisingly.

"You wouldn't do anything stupid if you ended up dirt poor like that, would you? Like overdose on pills rather than get a job, or whatever?"

"WHAT? NO!" Cordelia said angrily, coming back down to Earth. "Who do you take me for, some pathetic cry-baby loser? I'm Cordelia Chase, pal. And I don't plan on ever killing myself!"

"Well, that's good," Xander said with a slight smile. ( _Huh, guess Whistler was wrong about that one. Okay, fine. That's one less thing I have to worry about, thank God!_ )

"Right. Well, was there anything else?" the brunette girl asked, now in a hurry to get out of here.

"Uh, yeah. We need to clear up what happened between us in the library last Friday, don't you think? When we, uh, ended up kissing – I mean, see, I sorta promised Jesse that we would do that."

"Why? I mean, who cares about what that loser wants or thinks?" Cordelia demanded bluntly, honestly not in the mood for this after the big scare Xander had thrown her way.

The teenage boy shot her an unimpressed look. "Apart from the obvious, what the hell does any guy see in you anyway?"

Now Cordy was beginning to get mad. "And what's THAT supposed to mean?"

"Well, think about it. What the heck kinda comment was it that you just made? I mean, not that I know him all that well yet, but Jesse appears to be a stand-up kinda guy. And he's head over heels in love with you-"

"SO not my problem! And for the record, he's not really in love with me, at best Jesse's just...infatuated with the dream. There's a difference, you should know. That dweeb can't handle the fact that I don't even like him, that's just something that HE'S gotta deal with!"

( _My God – Tact Girl, this chick isn't..._ ) "I see. So when he asks about what happened between us on Friday, what am I supposed to tell him?" Xander asked way too calmly.

Cordelia appeared to think about it. "Well, you could try going with the obvious of course."

"Which is?"

"That you're a pervert!"

Xander stared at the female teenager in disbelief. "I'm a what?"

"You heard me! After the way you practically tried to jump my bones like that-" Cordelia started to say.

"No-no-no, hold on, just a second here!" Xander took a step closer to her, "I seem to recall that I was the jumpee, Miss Selective Memory!"

"As if!" Cordelia spat out. "Unlike you, I have a reputation to maintain Mr. Arsonist! I mean, you probably planned the whole thing!"

Xander took another step forward in the cramped utility closet. "Are you seriously spaced? Firstly, I'm not an arsonist! And secondly, who came into that library looking for whom?"

"Fine! Whatever," the Chase girl growled. "You know, the point I'm just trying to make here is – don't try it again!"

"I didn't try it in the first place! And don't worry, YOU won't be getting the chance for a repeat performance of that anytime soon!" Xander said directly into her face.

"Then it's erased!" Cordelia said in satisfaction.

"Never happened!" Xander agreed.

"Good!" Cordy said vehemently.

"Good!" Xander agreed.

"GOOD!" the female teen wanted to have the last word on the matter.

They both reached for the doorknob, and their hands met. The boy and girl hesitated for barely a moment...

...before they instinctively wrapped their arms around each other, and started sucking face even more passionately than the first time.

Xander cradled Cordelia's head in his hand, kissing her as they slowly sank to the floor. He reached up for the light string with his other hand and gave it a good hard yank, plunging the room into complete darkness just before they hit the ground.

And as far as Whistler was concerned, as he watched them together from somewhere up above in a higher dimension...

This was just the beginning.

**The End**


End file.
